THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER
THE WEIRD OF
THE WANDERER
BEING THE PAPYRUS RECORDS
OF SOME INCIDENTS IN ONE
OF THE PREVIOUS LIVES OF
MR. NICHOLAS CRABBE
HERE PRODUCED BY
PROSPERO & CALIBAN
LONDON
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED
CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1912
_First Published in 1912_
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
TO THE MAGNIFICENT MAN
DOMENICO COMPARETTI
ROMAN OF ROME,
SENATOR OF THE KINGDOM,
KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF CIVIL MERIT OF SAVOY,
OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF ST. MAURICE AND ST. LAZARUS,
COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF THE CROWN OF ITALY,
D.C.L. (_honoris causâ_) in the Universities of Oxford, Athens,
Cracow; Professor Emeritus in the University of Pisa and the Royal
Higher Institute of Florence; National-Member of the Royal Academy
of the Lincei, and of the Royal Academies of Sciences of Naples and
Turin; Academic-Correspondent of the Royal Academy della Crusca;
Correspondent-Member of the Royal Institute of Lombardy and the Veneto,
of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Bologna, of the Royal Academies
of Munich and Copenhagen, of the Imperial Academies of Vienna and
Petersburgh; Foreign Member of the Institute of France; Ordinary Member
of the German Archæological Institute of Rome, of the Archæological
Society of Athens, of the Syllogos Filol. of Constantinople, of the
Ugro-Finn Society of Helsingfors, of the Estone Society of Dorpat, etc.
etc. etc.
THIS LITTLE BOOK,
WITH OBSERVANCE AND WITH REVERENCE,
IS DEDICATED,
TO DIVERT HIS LEISURE.
[_Misce stultitiam conciliis brevem
Dulce est desipere in loco._
HORACE TO VERGIL, _Od._ 13, _Lib._ iv.]
PROSPERO _loq._ . . . . . I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not (savage)
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I informed thy purposes
With words.
CALIBAN _loq._ . . . . . Remember,
First, to possess his books: for, without them,
He’s but a sot, as I am.
_Shakespeare’s_ TEMPEST.
PROLOGUE
_A Letter from the Splendour of Arry, Grandmaster of the Order of
Sanctissima Sophia, Plas Hoel, Hoel, South Wales, to the Reverend
Adam Howley, Professor of Hivite Literature in Saint George’s
College, Oxford, and Honorary Consultor to Cardinal Bensington’s
Institute of Archives and Inscriptions._
“My dear M.W.S.
“Congratulations on achieving the Chair. You thoroughly deserve it.
“I am sending with this the key of a largish deed-box, which my man
Anderledy (P.M. of the ‘Isaak Newton,’ by all the gods!) will bring you
in the course of the day. The box contains the papyri about which I
wired to you from Smyrna last New Year’s Day; and you are to consider
yourself at liberty to deal with them in any way which you may deem
suitable. If you should think them worthy of being submitted to His
Eminency, I should not feel able to resist your judgment.
“The box also contains other matters, which (in my humble opinion)
ought to be considered along with the papyri: but you will know best
about that. Meanwhile, it will perhaps be as well if I set down here
(for your guidance) more detailed particulars of the circumstances of
the find.
“You know that Luke and Lombard and I went out to Armenia, in the
spring of last year, on a little private expedition of our own, to
hunt Assyrian and Persian antiquities; and I need not go into that
now, as R.H.B. says. Nor need I trouble you with a description of our
early successes and failures in digging. But it will be better for me
to come straight to the point at issue, namely, our chance-discovery
of a rock-tomb concealed behind a ruined chapel, which rewarded our
exertions at precisely 15 o’clock on the third of last December.
“As soon as I had had cleared away some of the rubbish and broken
stonework of the chapel, I became aware (from the apparition of
brilliant mural paintings on what seemed to be a doorway in the natural
rock) that a really important discovery was in my hand. Lombard was
trying to take a siesta in his tent, and Luke was with him singing
something about filling a cup with golden wine: but I at once summoned
them; and together we proceeded to investigate.
“Of course we were soon surrounded by a mob of Scottish-looking
_fanulloni_, who annoyed us with screams and gestures as we uncovered
the painted doorway; and it was not long before one of them proclaimed
himself to be the owner of the site and demanded compensation. Lombard
promptly tried him for the ‘Apprentice,’ and got the ‘Fellow-Craft,’
but not the ‘Master’: whereupon I at once staggered him by offering to
purchase the place outright; and, after half-an-hour’s fierce haggling,
I obtained it for about a couple of sovereigns’ worth of the silver
money current in the district. Then, I arranged for half-a-dozen of
the less anointed-looking ruffians to work for me; and soon cleared
the rest off my new property. It was getting too dark to do more that
afternoon: so, for safety’s sake, we had our tents moved on to the
scene of our find, and camped there for the night.
“The next morning, Luke took several photographs illustrating the
rock-tomb from the outside and every single step of our subsequent
investigations. You will find platinotypes of all these (duly numbered)
in the deed-box with the papyri; and here you must let me say that it
is entirely due to you that we were able to make so complete and so
permanent and so irrefutable a record of our work. Both Luke and I
agree that, had it not been for the peculiar cameras which you had made
for us and the singular instructions which you gave us, such a record
could not have existed. I know you say that you received these secrets
of photography from a dying man, who himself had them from our late
Lord Hadrian and only to be used for great and singular enterprizes:
but, my dear Howley, do let me affectionately ask you whether you have
ever considered the loss to humanity which is involved in the keeping
of such amazing powers in the hands of the few. However, all this
rambles away from my mark. I merely mention the point, and leave it to
your discretion, which I do not doubt for one moment.
“I regret to say that, in cutting-out the outer door of the
rock-tomb--it was a marble monolith, painted all over on the hither
side with a design of palm-branches and the emblems of _Cancer_ and
_Luna_--we slightly damaged an inner door of cedar-wood, magnificently
carved and inlaid with silver arabesques containing the same zodiacal
symbols in mother-of-pearl. I ought to add that after we had examined
and photographed the whole tomb _in situ_, I had it all carefully
removed in numbered lots, which (at the moment of writing) are being
put together again on the south side of the narthex of my chapel here
at Plas Hoel.
“To describe the interior of the tomb. It was twelve feet long by
six feet wide by seven feet high inside measurement, and completely
lined with silver and mother-of-pearl worked in designs similar to
those of the above-named door: excepting the far end, which has a
singular Tau-shaped cross-potent, four feet long by one-and-a-half feet
wide, in a vesica-shaped oval of Egyptian ankhs. The centre of the
floor-space was occupied by a huge chest of black basalt, eight inches
in thickness, on which was no carving of any kind: excepting an uncial
inscription on the lid (which had never been sealed up), as follows:
ΗΝ ΕΝ ΕΠΙΧΘΟΝΙΟΙϹ ΧΑΡΙΕϹΤΑΤΕ ΞΕΙΝΕ ΔΙΥΛΛΟϹ
ΟΝ ΠΟΤ ΑΡΜΕΝΙΗΙ ΠΟΛΥΜΗΤΙϹ ΕΦΥΕΝ ΟΔΥϹϹΕΥϹ
ΤΟΝ ΔΑΡΑ ωϹ ΗΚΟΥϹ ΕΚΑΛΟΥΝ ΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΝ ΕΤΑΙΡΟΙ
ΑΛΛΟΤΕ ΔΑΥΘ ωϹ ΜΑΝΤΙϹ ΕωΝ ΒΑΛΘΑΖΑΡ ΕΚΛΗΘΗ
I suppose we may as well translate: ‘_I was Diyllos among men on earth,
O most kindly stranger, whom, once, ever-ready Odysseys begat in
Armenia. Surely, as I hear, his comrades called him Nicholas: but, at
other times again, he (as being a Mage) was styled Balthazar._’ I shall
be curious to know what you make of that.
“The basalt chest contained two small silver urns hermetically sealed,
one on each side of the head of a mummy done in a positively amazing
manner, which I will describe presently. At the feet was a largish
oblong silver box: this held the papyri which I am sending to you.
“You will be able to follow our proceedings from the photographs. Luke
and Lombard and I are all agreed that such splendid photographs as
these, of a dark interior, would never have been done but for the six
oxygen lamps for burning powdered aluminium which you provided. If you
decide to lay our discoveries before His Eminency I must insist that
you shew him this letter in order that he may know to whom any credit
(which may be awarded) is actually due.
“The following were the contents of the two small urns. Both contained
a limpid viscid substance, which (of course) at one time had been
preserving oil. In the first urn, we found a Smith & Wesson’s
Hammerless Safety revolver and a denarius of Augustus, wrapped first in
linen and then in canvas. In the second, was a gold watch with a badly
cracked dial and no glass, number 7634291, made by Dent of Trafalgar
Square--and, also, a coin of Ptolemy the Piper (the value of which I do
not know), both similarly wrapped in linen and canvas.
“From the masons’ marks on the ruined chapel which had concealed our
rock-tomb, Lombard declares it to be a work of the ninth century after
Christ. (Lombard, I may remind you, is P.G.D. of England and in the
thirty-third degree.) And, from the fact that, between the hill-end of
the chapel and the outer slab which closed the tomb, there were quite
six feet of soil beside the wall which masked the said marble slab, it
is evident that the builders of the chapel (whoever they may have been)
were quite ignorant of the existence of the tomb behind it. The Vali of
Van also, whom I questioned, asseverated that he had never even heard
of any kind of tradition, connected either with the chapel or with the
tomb, during all his twenty-four years in the valiwick.
“Now I come to something even queerer. Luke solemnly swears that the
revolver which we found was not made before the year 1898; and Dent
(to whom I submitted the watch) tells me that (according to his books)
it was made in 1899 and sold to a Mr. Nicholas Crabbe of Crabs
Herborough in Kent. And yet, please note that both these things have
been discovered in an Armenian rock-tomb dating from something B.C.
and only just now brought to light.
“But I must get on.
“We did not examine the mummy, or even unswathe it, until we got
it safe home to Plas Hoel; and, in fact, we only finished with it
yesterday. Here are the particulars.
“The body is that of a very handsome lad indeed, of about nineteen
years of age, and most magnificently made: indeed I only know of
one specimen of physique at all comparable with it in splendour of
symmetry; and that is the statue of the Athlete with the Strigil, by
Lysippos, in the Vatican collection. There is absolutely no trace of
decay about it; and it looks as fresh and feels as soft (though of
course it’s cold) as the body of a young sleeper. Another curious
thing about it is that it does not appear to have been eviscerated, or
treated internally in any way. Luke and Lombard and I have been over
every inch of the skin with magnifiers; and have quite failed to find
anything like a likely incision. Nor are there any indications of the
actual cause of death. The lad evidently had been in the wars, for
his body has twenty-one frightful scars: but, though four of them at
least ought to have been mortal wounds, they are perfectly cicatrized
and healthily healed. The four scars, to which I specially allude, are
as follows: a thrust through the inside of the right thigh from front
to back which might very well have tapped the femoral artery: another
through the left armpit upward, with emergence inside the collar-bone:
two clean round punctures through the neck from front to back, one on
each side of the throat. There are also seventeen cuts, none less than
four inches long and all deepish, on the face and the muscles of the
arms and the front of the thighs. But they are not at all disfiguring:
for, as I have said, the skin is supple, very fine and smooth and young
in texture, and also exquisitely sunburnt throughout. Whoever he was,
any man might be proud of being his father. As for the skull, it is
small and of a very perfect facial angle of the best Greek type. The
eyes are closed; and I frankly say that we’ve none of us had the heart
to open them. As for that dear soft-hearted Luke, he declared that he’d
never speak to me again if I attempted it. The mouth is a bold firm
one--a little large perhaps: but splendidly shaped. I don’t as a rule
care for a Cupid’s bow in one of my own sex: but this one is that,
and as noble as one could wish, as well. The lips are as red as beef;
and the teeth are perfect, quite white and rather large. The hair is
short, and of a pale flaxen colour, almost white: though the man was
obviously under twenty years of age. Now for measurements. The height
is sixty-eight inches: leg inside fork, thirty-five inches (singularly
long, according to modern proportions): chest, thirty-six-and-a-quarter
inches: weight, hundred-and-thirty-seven pounds ten ounces. All the
above are taken naked. On the third finger of the right hand is a
silver signet, very massive indeed, the device being a crucified Love
(the cross is the peculiar tau-shaped cross-potent noted above) with
the legend ΨΥΧΗϹ ΑΚΟΝΗ which Luke poetically renders _The Whetstone of
the Soul_. On the shoulders of this ring are two eye-chalcedonyxes set
in the sign of the Crab; and on front and back there is the sign of the
Moon in blue moonstone and rock-crystal respectively. Under the linen
shroud, which (mark you) was a large sheet and nothing at all like the
ordinary mummy-bandage, the body was clothed in a short linen tunic
under a shirt of silver mail reaching to the middle.
“Among the usual spices which formed a bed at the bottom of the basalt
chest, we found four English sovereigns, dated 1884, 1889, 1890, 1897.
The two first are much worn: the 1890 piece is in fair condition: while
the 1897 one has been pierced and has a small ring through it of very
red gold.
“Professor Monteagle of Cambridge, who has been staying here, gives
it as his opinion that the mummy is not more than two thousand and
certainly not less than nineteen hundred years old. He was, however,
frightfully disturbed about the sovereigns: while the revolver and
the watch, which we discovered without his help, appear to have
disconcerted him most seriously. I am, indeed, convinced that he will
go back to Cambridge and tell everybody that we have been trying to
pull his leg: which in fact is not the case.
“However, the whole affair bristles with incomprehensibilities, to my
mind; and I only hope that you, my dear Howley, may be able to find
some solution of them when you decypher the papyri. Of course I will
gladly furnish any further information which you may require and I
may be able to offer. And I hope you won’t mind my saying that it
will perhaps be better for both of us if you will kindly have your
translation of the papyri type-written at my charges. There is a most
satisfactory little person at 7 Broad.
“Believe me,
“Very sincerely yours,
[Illustration: saltire cross] “ARRICUS: _Magnus Magister_.”
_A Letter from the Reverend Adam Howley, Professor of Hivite
Literature in Saint George’s College, Oxford, and Honorary
Consultor to Cardinal Bensington’s Institute of Archives and
Inscriptions, to The Splendour of Arry, Grandmaster of the
Order of Sanctissima Sophia, Plas Hoel, Hoel, South Wales._
Dear Arry:
“These papyri are written on in Greek of the first century Ante
Christum, by several different hands (three at least). A few words in
late-Victorian English are by another hand. I am sending type-written
translations herewith. Don’t you remember what a fuss there was about
Nicholas Crabbe’s mysterious disappearance from Cyprus just after
the Dilimile’s hysterical howls for ten thousand flying machines?
The Eminency of Cardinal Bensington desires me to thank you for your
offer; and proposes, if agreeable, to pay you a visit at Plas Hoel,
after Pentecost, for the purpose of restoring the papyri to their
proper place, and of closing up the rock-tomb with all its contents
in your chapel with Christian Rites. Now then! His Eminency, however,
intends to name you to our Most Holy Lord the Pontiff for the gold
research-medal called the “Lesser Wisdom” for this year. I hope that
this will suit your plans.
“Personally I must beg you not to take me as expressing any opinion on
this, or on any other, matter.
“They say that dear old Parke wants to give up his living and come back
here as archivist.
“Billy Buffell’s got a baby.
“The weather is fine, but cold.
“Yours truly,
“A. H.
“_P.S._--The following chronology is the best I can compile:
“1. Mr. Crabbe seems to have disappeared from civilization _circa_
A.D. 1899.
“2. He then, apparently, engaged in experiments in Egypt. The result
was that he took an unintentional toss backward through Time to the
reign of Ptolemaios Ayletes, _i.e._ _circa_ B.C. 80-51. (_Cf._
Papyri IIII.-XII.)
“3. We now learn for a fact (what must have struck a good many
earnest thinkers who had the privilege of knowing him here and
elsewhere), that he actually is Odysseys reincarnate; and of course
Odysseys originally flourished _circa_ B.C. 1180.
(_Cf._ Papyrus XII.)
“4. However, Mr. Crabbe (as Odysseys reincarnate) enjoys infernal and
olympian experiences (_cf._ Papyri XIII.-XXIII.), obviously _circa_
B.C. 51-44. This date can be fixed, with comparative conclusiveness,
from the allusion to Caesar’s murder (_cf._ Papyrus XXXI.), which,
we know, took place in the latter year.
“5. I fancy that a fair case might be made out for the theory that
the Papyri themselves could very well have been written between
_circa_ B.C. 44 and the Christian Era. There can be little mistake
about the “Star” (_cf._ its prediction, Papyrus VII.; and its
occurrence, Papyrus XXXIIII.).
“6. I am almost inclined to permit myself the use of the epithet
“annoying” in reference to the twenty-one additional papyri (giving
an account of the very imperfectly known state of Moxoene _circa_
B.C. 44 and A.D. projected in Papyrus XXXIII.), which are, I might
almost say, as it were inaccessible, at least for the present.
“A. H.
“_P.P.S._--I fear that my translation is perhaps a little loose: but
then the style of the original by no means errs in the direction of
concise regularity--as one, considering all the circumstances, might
reasonably expect.
“A. H.
“_P.P.P.S._--His Eminency says that you may publish these naïve and
almost Dantesque and sometimes quite Homeresque fragments, if you care
to and have nothing more serious to occupy yourself with. If you do,
it will be positively fascinating to observe which, of the apparent
inconsistencies, will be selected for execration by smart sciolists of
our own hysterical age.
“A. H.
_P.P.P.P.S._--Before you do publish, if you determine on that course,
I think you ought to peruse Mr. Rider Haggard’s brilliant treatise on
Helen of Troy. I believe it is called _The World’s Desire_: and of
course you can get it from the T.B.C.
“A. H.
“_P.P.P.P.P.S._--On the whole, I really think I would, you know, if I
were you. Upon more mature consideration, I am inclined to fancy that
it might turn out to be (what we used to call) rather a ‘Lark.’
“A. H.
“_P.P.P.P.P.P.S._--Publish, I mean.
“A. H.”
THE FIRST PAPYRUS
I, who have been, or will be, Nicholas Crabbe of Crabs Herborough in
the duchy of Kent--and who am Odysseys son of Laertes, an immortal
and sometime inhabitant of olympian palaces--but now known as King
Balthazar of Moxoene which will be called (or which was once called) in
the time whence I came (or in the time to which I yet shall come) Van
in Armenia--I swear, by my honour and by my faith as a king who never
has built altars to Roma and Julius (like the Ephesians and Nikaians)
or to Rome and Augustus (like Bithynia and Asia), that the things which
I here cause to be written, and write, are true.
May Osiris, and Zeys, and Mithra, and all great gods of the past and
the present and the future, masters of wisdom, blast me--and may The
One Signified scorn me, if these written words do not agree with the
facts which befell me, who am fallen backward through the rolling
wheels of time. Thus, I, an immortal and a king, swear. And may he
who belies me rot and wither and evanesce in the uttermost depths of
Tartaros whither I have been thrice, or of Amentet, whither I have
been once, or of that Hell to which I will not go. I have sworn.[1]
Now I, King Balthazar of Moxoene in Naïri or Armenia, the Viceroy of
Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, say thus to Empedokles
my scribe, in my royal palace on the shore of my Thospitian Sea, within
my kingdom, which I do not hold from Rome, having taken it myself by
favour of Great Zeys.
Let it be known that I, King Balthazar, was called, in an age which is
to come, Nicholas Crabbe the Impossible. I lived peacefully as might
be. I have nothing to say of my origin in that life, or of my early
years: for, in good sooth, most of the things which then happened to
me were so incredibly cruel and so unspeakably hideous that I wish to
forget most of them, and the rest have been smudged (mercifully) on
the tablets of my memory. It shall be enough to tell that, as a scope
for my energy, I forced myself (in default of all other interests) to
become a seeker after wisdom, a client of the Muses and of far-darting
Phoibos Apollon, an ardent student of all branches of music and
gymnastic,[2] and chiefly of those branches which taught my subtile
adept mind to do what all other men never even dreamed of doing, and
my strong nimble body to do what all other men dare not do. For I
penetrated into the occult arcana.
Under pretext of studying the surgery of ancient Egypt, I learned
to read hieroglyphics; and, in time, my exertions and my energies
culminated in a single desire to get to the root of white magic as
contained on papyri in tombs of archpriests of temples of Isis. For a
whole year I pondered the difficulties and the dangers, delaying to
gratify my desire, expecting a sign or a companion from the blessed
gods. None came.
Arrived at the end of my patience, I acted very suddenly. For, having
provided myself with gold money and circular notes,[3] I went my
own way to Alexandria, departing from my native land which now is
the barbarian Britannia. And, at Alexandria, I hired a boat with
boatmen and servants: for it was in my noble mind to sail up River
Nile, staying when and where I listed, exploring ruins above Assiut,
specially small ruins, in the hope of finding mummy-chests ripe for
rifling or hieroglyphics crying to be read on pillars or walls of
unknown temples. During eight months, thus I did: but I found no more
than three unopened mummy-chests, and (beside them) little of worth.
Nevertheless, one of the said chests contained certain superior
matters: to wit, a magic staff of silver and ebony, and a silver
divination-cup chased with sacred creatures, which things I did
not examine closely till I came to Philai. But, there, my labours
were rewarded: for a small temple at Philai yielded no less than
three-and-forty mummy-chests, carven and painted, containing the
remains of persons who (in their time) had been most mighty. And, of
these, I will name one, having many matters to narrate concerning
him. But he was the priest Amenemhat, sometime hierarch of the temple
of Isis at Tanis by the mouth of Nile. Moreover, I found a manual
intitled _For the Use of Priests_; and it contained the rules by which
mortal men may communicate with the immortals, whom the Egyptians call
Osirians. And this was by far the most noble thing which I discovered.
But I must not omit to mention also a divination-ball, of rock-crystal
of the bigness of a baby’s head, which I found in a mummy-chest: it was
banded with silver set with large blue moonstones, and a silver chain
was attached to it. Now I took this for a favourable omen, very apt
indeed to me: for, having been born under the moon and the sign of the
crab, and being therefore crab by nature as well as Crabbe by name,
the heart in my dear breast rejoiced greatly to possess so beautiful a
jewel, formed (indeed) of the very stones and of the very metal which
(as is well known) are proper to a native of that sign and of that
planet. But I hanged it by its chain to the magic staff already named.
When, at length, I had leisure to study the papyrus manual, I became
aware of the vast power which it put into my hands. It contained a very
long and useless introduction, including oft-reiterated laments because
Okhos (the Persian successor of the deposed Nebk-Neft) had degraded the
hierarchy of Khem, striking a blow at the prestige of all hierarchs.
But, this being ended, the gist of the work was clearly set down: nor
could anything more be added necessary to enable one (possessed of the
magic implements, as I was), to commune with long-dead sages, mages who
had relinquished the use of their bodies and dwelt no more in the sweet
sunlight, obtaining from them the wisdom of the past, and the power
which such wisdom gives, both unpossessed by men alive.
But it appeared that I still lacked certain spices and sacred
combustibles, both essential in magic operations. Wherefore, being
always young and headstrong and (therefore) of a spasmodic habit, I
turned about instantly to those places where I could purchase myrrh
and cassia and gum-olibanon and gum-tragacanth and spikenard and
red-sanders and saffron and cinnamon and sulphur and powdered ivory and
pepper and pepperwort and mastic and certain other substances the names
of which may not be written on account of a religious reason. And four
months passed before I had finished this quest in Cairo and Alexandria
and Arabia and Byzantion and Massilia, filling a cabinet with potent
essences and very virtuose quintessences.
In this manner I reascended the sacred river, until I came to Korte.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] So far the papyrus is written in late-Victorian English, in what
I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. I may say that I am not inclined
to discredit any of the statements, abnormal or otherwise, made by
the King of Moxoene (that is to say, by Mr. Nicholas Crabbe). The
_Oath Compelling Truth_, which he here uses, is a recognized and quite
respectable formula; and I am not aware of any instance on record of
its ever having been belied in any particular, however minute. Indeed,
in so far as Truth is the Agreement of Words with Facts, all history
seems to shew that the solemn swearing of this _Oath Compelling Truth_
is perhaps the most irrefragable warranty of Truth, as such, which our
present state of information can supply. A. H.
[2] I take it that Mr. C. uses these words in a Platonic sense, as
signifying mental and physical activities respectively. A. H.
[3] These two words are written in English in what I take to be Mr.
C.’s own hand. A. H.
THE SECOND PAPYRUS
But I had determined to do my magic in an inner court of the temple
at Korte, unknown to persons liable to disturb my peace. And, with
incredible toil, I cleared the said court of sand, having left my
servants in charge of my boat a mile away. Furthermore, in the hard
red-granite pavement of the court, I cut a circular channel of
sufficient depth to contain a certain very holy liquid; and this
I did with nineteen days’ incessant labour, using a hammer and a
well-tempered chisel. But the trench was three paces and nine in
circumference, and half-a-span in width, and a quarter of a span in
depth.
In the midst of the circle and on the base of a fallen column, I set
my silver divination-cup; and, by it, I placed my cabinet of essences
and quintessences: but I hanged my divination-orb to my left arm by its
silver chain, holding the magic staff in my hand. The fulness of the
moon agreed with what was described in my papyrus manual; and, when all
was ready, I filled the circular furrow with a bright-green essence,
pungent, mysteriously potent, continuing to pour till the trench was
lip-deep with the emerald fluid. Next, I filled the divination-cup with
water from the sacred river, lowering the orb of divination therein
with my left hand, and sprinkling the circle with gum-tragacanth while
I intoned the incantation called _Of the Buckle of Red Jasper Dipped in
Water of Ankham Flowers and Inlaid in Sycamore Wood and Placed on the
Neck of the Shining One_, which is the Power of Isis.
The moon grew brighter and more fierce, till she wellnigh rivalled the
sun in brightness; and her hot rays made me sweat profusely. Wherefore,
at the proper time, I was glad to strip me naked; but I began to stir
the water in the cup with the magic staff, saying: “_The Blood of
Isis, the Charms of Isis, the Power of Isis, be a protection unto Me,
the Master, crushing that which I abhor, making all Ways passable or
flyable or swimable unto Me: and I stretch out one Hand to Heaven and
the Other to Earth._”
In the glare of almost unbearable moonlight, I saw that my crystal
orb was becoming red-hot notwithstanding that it was immersed in
Nile-water. But I poured the proper unguent of aloes into my cup,
with nine tears of gum-olibanon; and the green liquid in the trench
blushed with ruddily gleaming access of fury. But I, looking again on
my papyrus manual, read these words: “_See that thou grasp thy staff
firmly, not letting it fall from thee through any pang, be thy pangs
never so keen; likewise, when the clear sphere gleameth redly, hold thy
staff as though it were thy life, for so it is, and if thou lose it
thou shalt die._” And, hardly had I read this rule (which I had never
seen before: although I had collated the whole manual with some care
during my four-months’ quest for spices), hardly, I say, had I read
these awful words, when I felt the magic staff growing hot in my hands.
I gripped it more closely: but its heat increased. I felt it searing my
flesh. I saw the smoke rise. I heard the flesh frizzle like the hissing
collops of an acceptable sacrifice farced with select fats. And, all
the while, lurid lightnings leaped from the liquid in the trench.
At last, so poignant was my anguish, that I determined rather to risk
death than to see and hear and smell my living hand burned off while
I stood. But, at the very moment, piercing through the sputtering of
the white-hot lambent rod in my defenceless hand, there came a divine
voice from I know not where, saying in the Argive tongue: “_Be of good
heart, my child, and endure for all my pain: for many of us who inhabit
olympian palaces have suffered._”[4]
Whereon I nerved myself, dismissing base thoughts of surrender. And
all grew black before my eyes; and my soul was shrouded in obscurity.
So I stood, enduring unmentioned and unthought-of anguish with all my
might; and I indeed was on the very verge of swooning: when suddenly
the admirable voice came again, ringing triumphantly, saying: “_Hail,
Conquistator of Self! Hail, Nicholas, the Victor over many Peoples!_”
And immediately the staff became cool; and my reeking wounds vanished,
and only the memory of my ordeal remained.
I turned to inspect the divination-cup. Pale flames leaped silently
therein from the crystal orb, of such intense heat as comes from
an open furnace to the well-reddened watcher at its door: but the
Nile-water lay limpid and cold above and about the raging globe of the
seven-times heated fire. But I, mindful of the rules in the papyrus
manual, cast in myrrh and powdered ivory; and I intoned the incantation
called _Demands on the gods_, which old Menes had composed many
centuries before.
The verdant flame in the trench gave forth volumes of suffocating green
vapour, filling the whole court, and beating me brow to pavement.
But I ceased not from my chanting; and, when I came to the famous
verse, “_Nor shall ye slay us by choking: thus we adjure you_,” the
green steam suddenly arose, till it seemed that I was enclosed in
a dome-shaped cell of malachite, so solid did the vapour appear.
Whereupon, with the mightiest voice of me I uttered the summons, “_O
souls, be seen!_”
Instantly there was a crash of thunder and the inmarcesible glow of
uranian fires. The earth beneath me quivered like a woman; and the
temple rocked as ships are rocked (in his spasms) by the azure-haired
earth-shaker, lord of the stormy sea. But, above me, the green dome
expanded, stretching to unfathomable abysses of space; and I perceived
that its place was becoming filled with fiery faces of base grotesque
and adipose dignitaries, archbishops of malevolent allure having pleats
about their eyes disdainful of obscure persons. Nor were any of them
alike for any moment of time: but they waved and flickered like the
myriad leaves of a forest blazing with autumnal glory. But out of this
maze of bodiless faces came a tired moaning, demanding why they had
been summoned.
Now I indeed was serene; and my heart and lordly mind exulted greatly:
for I knew that I had the Power. And, holding out the magic staff with
my right hand, and placing my left on the cool crystal orb, I cried: “I
summon none but Amenemhat, the priest of Tanis.”
Eight flame-like shapes flickered downward, individuals glabrous and
mouthing, the torsions of whose pulpy lips avowed their invirility;
and they stood before me, but on the further edge of the redly-glaring
moat; and each one wailed: “I am Amenemhat, the priest of Tanis.”
Then for the moment I was nonplussed: but I remembered that eight
men, all named Amenemhat, had been (in their turns) priests of Tanis.
Wherefore I cried again: “I summon none but him who was Amenemhat, the
priest of Tanis, at the time when Ptolemais Ayletes reigned as Pharoah
in Khem.”
And now but one flame-like shape flickered outside the circle; and it
simply sighed, saying: “I am that Amenemhat; and I am here.”
So I commanded him to lie quietly down and lap the emerald liquid in
the trench as a test of his good faith. But I conjured the others to
return to their own places in Amentet, using the _Name Ineffable_ to
compel them, the _Spell_ which may not be spoken save in direst need,
nor written save on virgin papyrus by a priest who knows himself to be
without blemish. And they bowed thrice when I named the _Name_, wailing
wearily. And there was thunder and lightning and a heaving of all
things at their going; and they seemed to melt together into one vast
fiery arrow, which sped (like a bolt shot by the lord of the silver
bow) upward and away into the arcana of the outer immensity.
But Amenemhat, the priest of Tanis, lay prostrate before me, meekly
lapping. And he no longer had the shape of a flame: for, now, the
chariot of Helios Hyperion had emerged from the crocus-hued gate of
dawn. Ashen-grey was Amenemhat, and hard indeed to see: for, being
but an Osirian, he cast no shadow, nor did he obstruct my view of the
columns of the court behind him. And I was in the mind to laugh at
the thought that, after all, so high a priest as he was should have
no more solid shape than a jellyfish, tinted like a rainbow where
the rising sun’s radiance touched him. But I remembered that Death
comes to all, and that rain-born Iris (a divine one of goddesses) is
also thus primarily tinctured; and I hastened to intone the _Spell
of Embodiment_, touching what there was of Amenemhat with the magic
staff, and saying: “_Advance, thou Dweller in the Outer Space, and be
a thing of earth again till I release thee._”
Thus I spoke: but he rose like a brilliant mist, ever thickening
into opacity and taking the form which my lordly mind hurriedly made
for him. Mother-naked, even as I was, he crossed into the mystic
circle which my staff opened to him. I touched his brow with the
crystal orb, and placed his hands in the sacred water of Sihor in the
divination-cup. And vital fluids came back into his veins, so that he
became a thing of earth and fit for reasonable conversation. But I also
gave him the _Heart-touch_, saying: “Receive thy mortal life in lease
from me for a season.”
But he stood at his full height, looking into my eyes; and he said:
“O thou, unknown, who has called me from Amentet, and hast given me
again a mortal body with blood and life-like juices, be ware lest I
shall overcome thee. Thus I warn thee, in accordance with the immutable
law of Osiris where it is written, _He who is summoned shall warn his
summoner_.”
But I was not afraid. And I laid the _Spell of Obedience_ on Amenemhat.
But, when I had thus secured my own safety and also a trusty friend
and familiar who was to instruct me in unmentioned and unthought-of
magic, then, indeed, I took liberty to give way to a human weakness,
having already tolerated enough to slay nineteen ordinary men--to wit,
the agony of the scorching staff, and the long labours under the fiery
moon, and the stifling green vapour, and the horrid vision of the
flickering faces; and I took liberty, I say without shame, to swoon
away into oblivion.
When, at length, the mind in my dear breast awakened, I found my new
familiar faithfully ministering to me, gently holding the thread of
life which bid fair to fray out in my enfeebled grasp. But we two,
having clothed ourselves, returned to my boat, there to live in
tranquillity while I recollected myself.
But there remained much to be done yet by me. I felt that I would have
been quite content to spend the rest of that life as Amenemhat’s pupil,
learning from him the occult and affascinating arts of the hierarchs
of ancient Khem. For we read together in the many rolls of papyrus
which I had collected; and it was easy to know that, whereas I was like
a clever child who early has learned to read, he was a perfect adept
who (by long experience) was able to understand what was read. But,
by chance, the precise method of working a certain inchantment, which
opens the Hall of Double Truth and Right, baffled us both. And it was
of the very gravest import that I should know how to practise this
inchantment: for thereby I could learn the whole secret of a man using
himself Bai and Ka and Khou as might seem good to him: which, for a
miserable mortal is much to be desired, as being uncommon.
But the rede of Amenemhat was that I should repeat the _Spell of
Summons_, summoning a Great One of the Greater Ones, from whom I should
require an instruction. But, for some time, I withstood the priest:
I know not why, unless it be that habit and temper make me prompt to
resist direction that I may steer my course in accordance only with the
mind in my lordly breast.
But there came a night, when we by chance were sitting together on the
deck of my Nile-boat in the clear of a full moon; and great peace came
upon me, so that my soul swelled sweetly within me, letting me know
that I was full of wiles and furnished with inexhaustible reserves of
power. And I said: “At dawn we will go southward; and, at the temple of
Korte, at a moon-birth, I will use my power for summoning a Great One
of The Greater Ones.”
Thus I spoke. But Amenemhat answered me, saying: “Nay, O Summoner, why
toil so far, seeing that there are places nearer where this inchantment
may be worked with equal ease?”
“I know,” quoth I, “of no place as free from the risk of disturbance as
the temple of Korte.”
“Thou hast but to command,” he responded, “and I, O Summoner, must
reveal to thee the secret fanes of Khem.”
“Reveal them, thou,” I promptly said.
“There is one at Heliopolis----”
“Too near to noisy Cairo.”
“There is another at Ptolemais, now called Thomis----”
“I saw there a galosh-factory, when last I descended Sihor’s sacred
flood.”
“There are those vast secret halls of Thebes----”
“Ruined.”
“Thebes above ground indeed is ruined, O wise Summoner, but not the
Thebes which lies below.”
“How know’st thou this?” I said.
“From the gods who revealed the fact to me in my former life: for when
I was a priest in Khem, I learned many things which in time would be.
And it was given to me to know how that the temples of Khem should be
desolated and the peoples of Khem destroyed. And it was shewn to me
for how many centuries the secret halls of the three priestly colleges
at Thebes would remain forgotten. But I, also, am ware of an entrance,
well-concealed, very hard to find, which I can shew to thee if thou
desirest to make use of those dim halls as they were wont to be used.”
Thus he spoke. And the mind in my breast exulted. But I said: “Surely
the adits will be blocked with shrubs and fallen masonry?”
“That may not be, O Summoner,” he answered, “for the adit of which I
speak is in the open plain.”
“Then we will go to Thebes; and the thing which has to be done shall be
well-done, there.”
But when, at length, we were come to the ruined capital of the Upper
Land and the Lower, having left some of our baggage at the paltry
village of Luxor, concealing the rest, anon we pursued our way across
the sandy plain thereby, until we reached a certain pebbly strip of
land which was unencumbered, excepting by a low pillar of granite. And
the pillar, being no more than a span in height, would have been quite
unnoticeable had any ruins approximated: as it was, I almost trod upon
it before I perceived its weather-worn surface, deeply graven with
the dead tongues of tombs, and undecypherable for all who have not
(but I have) a knowledge of those tongues from the tongue of one who
himself had used them. Time-worn was that little pillar, as well it
might be: for Amenemhat said that, in his own day, it had been more
venerable than the oldest fanes. Also, he narrated a tradition, which
said that a remote ancestor of Menes found it there, marking the site
where Divine Osiris first placed his foot on the hallowed soil of Khem:
but Amenemhat said (as well) that this tradition rested on no sure
warranty, for that Menes himself had taken the pillar from a temple
builded many ages before Khem was a country, and had it set there to
mark the entrance of the secret halls which he himself was building.
But I instantly put this saying to the proof. For we strove to move the
pillar in its socket, where during nineteen centuries at least it had
been undisturbed. And, when we turned it round, the slab supporting it
sank slowly on a hinge: but sand with many pebbles slid downward on to
the stair which was revealed.
Thus then was manifest the entrance to the Secret Halls of Thebes.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] _Cf._ a similar divine voice, _Iliad_, v. 380-410. A. H.
THE THIRD PAPYRUS
Having lighted lanthorns, I began to descend the stair with my
familiar: but a very noxious vapour drove us back. And, while I chafed
at this delay, Amenemhat reproved me, saying: “Why wait hours for
nature to effect that which thou (with magic art) couldst do in a
moment?”
And this having been the second time when I myself had forgotten the
power which I possessed, till reminded of the same by my familiar, I,
indeed, held a sort of council with myself; and I determined that, in
the future, I no longer would live as men of my own race are wont to
live, in helpless abject obedience to so-called natural laws, seeing
that (for me) such laws did not exist, but that I would be limited
solely by the mind in my lordly breast, willing what I pleased, and
causing its performance by forces amenable to my magic art. And, having
thus determined, I instantly invoked certain airy sprites, yellow as
sunflowers, who, with millions of legs alternately coming and going,
purified the staircase and the edifices to which it led.
The passage having thus been rendered favourable to earth-walking men,
we again descended: but, when we came to certain gates beyond the
forty-ninth antechamber, some mysterious energy barred our progress.
That is to say, when we reached the said gates, my head would have
gone through, but my feet refused to budge--though Amenemhat went
forward without difficulty, whom I, seeing that he was my familiar and
his place behind his lord, recalled. For, if I could not proceed (on
account of some inexplicable impotence on the part of my blameless
feet), neither might he, for a servant may not go before his master in
a case of this kind.
Wherefore, I used my magic art again; and I uttered several spells one
by one, excepting the _Spell of the Name Ineffable_ which I do not deem
fit to say in any need but that which seems extreme. And none of my
spells availed me anything.
But my mind mentioned that Amenemhat’s ability to go forward, and
my inability, might perchance indicate some difference of character
between us two; and I used my wiles for pondering possible differences.
In this manner I perceived that whereas he was a priest according to
the highly respectable rite of Khem, I was no more than a Tonsured
Clerk of the Latin Obedience. For it may as well be known by all men
living that, in my early (or later) life in the kingdom of Victory
queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, one of the many incredibly
cruel and unspeakably hideous happenings which marred me and soured me
was as follows. The Divine Ones of the Latin Obedience called me to
serve them as flamen sacrificing for the Blessed Dead; and I willingly
responded to the call. In token whereof I was admitted to the first
grade of the flaminian estate, being marked apart from other men by
the five-pointed tonsure.[5] And immediately, by the blundering of
blind guides (the most righteous of men), confirmed by hierarchical
timidity or stupidity or malignity, I was denied my heart’s desire,
and bile was mingled with my blood. I, then, endured my torments
disdainfully, as my habit is, saying all those invectives which my mind
gave me to say as rudely and as loudly as possible. And there appeared
unto me processions of heresiarchs and schismatarchs (all blameless),
wearing altogether prestigious habiliments, and using gestures (almost
salacious) which ran along their bodies and suggested things not said,
who proffered to me priesthoods (and in one case) a pontificate. But
none of their pretty things pleased me, not being of valid or desirable
origin. And I remained where I was, ready to go forward, ruthlessly
refusing to go back.
But now the blessed gods inhabiting olympian palaces were permitting me
to find in Thebes the representative of a religion prior in time to,
and by no means a dissent from, my own--a religion, furthermore, which
was to mine what the flower is to the fruit. Wherefore, being denied
the fruit, I made no more ado: but I clutched the flower.
For this cause, I retraced my steps, returning to Luxor, where I
commanded my faithful Amenemhat, the priest of Tanis, to give me the
order of priesthood according to the rite of Khem. And this he did when
I had sworn the great oath of an Egyptian priest, which oath bound me,
till Mother Isis herself released me, as I shall narrate hereafter.
But Amenemhat gave me the unction of sacred nard, with the white linen
robe and the silver ankh, breathing on my head, and laying hands on
me, saying: “_May all the gods bless thee: may Heru-p-Khart love thee:
may Isis nurture thee: may Osiris guide and prosper thee, so that thou
never look back but alway forward on the illimitable field of wisdom
hereby opened to thee. And, by the power committed to me, I Amenemhat,
make thee, Nicholas, a priest of Khem, in the name of Apis Osiris the
great god who sitteth in Amentet, ever-living lord, everlasting ruler,
deliverer, sustainer, who is Osiris, who is Nu, who is Ra, who is Tum,
all whose feathers are upon him, and who giveth life for ever and for
ever._”
These matters, then, being accomplished, we returned to Thebes; and
nothing impeded my entrance to the subterranean palaces.
But we transported my magic apparatus, on a truck, into the
forty-ninth antechamber of those secret halls, to be convenient for our
operations at a fitting time. But, because the fidelity of the servants
whom we left with the rest of our baggage by the river-side (excepting
that which I myself had concealed) was not above suspicion, I, indeed,
took with me all my money, to wit, five-and-fifty gold quarter-ounces
of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans,[6] and some
Egyptian silver. Also I armed myself with my death-spitter,[7] and with
a belt containing four-and-sixty death-parcels,[8] for there was always
a chance of an encounter with barbarian tomb-riflers in Egypt of the
nineteenth century to come. Also, I took my gold time-teller:[9] for
that was the last thing which I bought before I left the land of my
future birth.
But we stood before the hitherto-resisting portal. A touch from my
magic staff caused the massive gates to creak and to yawn with much
groaning before us. Having crossed certain vast secret halls, walking
at a slow but even pace for an hour or more, we came to the verge of a
subterranean lake. I flashed my lanthorn over the watery expanse: but
we saw no distant shore. A narrow causeway, only a few spans higher
than the dark flood, was all that met our eyes; and that lost itself,
twenty cubits away, in impenetrable gloom. I stooped and dipped my
hand into the water: by which act I perceived that what I had taken
for a lake was actually a strong stream; and I opined that it was some
subterranean collateral of sacred Sihor.
But I boldly stepped out on to the causeway, bidding Amenemhat to
follow me and to push before him the small wheeled truck, light
to lift, easily propelled, which contained my cabinet of essences
and quintessences, with my divination-cup and my crystal orb of
divination banded with silver with adornments of rose-crystals and
blue moonstones, together with a skinful of Nile-water and certain
alimentaries. And, as my eyes became accustomed to the murky blackness,
I perceived the outlines of colossal columns on both sides of the
stream: these supported a carven roof strangely painted with cats and
weasels.
But, after a journey which seemed to be interminable owing to the
darkness and the silence, though it was not actually more than a
thousand paces, the causeway widened suddenly; and, on peering for the
edge, I was ware that I had crossed the dark river as by a bridge. That
dark river of running water divided my life as a liegeman of Victory
queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans from a life which lay before.
New wonders arrested the melancholy dejection of my mind. In front
of me, there appeared a wall painted with figures representing the
initiation of priests in the divine Isidian mysteries; and this wall
was pierced by three doors. Not for me was it to hesitate. Not for me
was it even to ask guidance of my familiar. But these opinions did
not prevent me from contriving a wile, observing with the corner of
my eye that Amenemhat’s glance instinctively went to the door on the
right hand. Which door I instantly laid open with a touch of my magic
staff; and, having passed along a corridor, richly adorned, very fair
to see, we emerged in a vast circular hall, columned, and surrounded by
a cloister having a series of apsidal chapels in its outer boundary.
And the place was indeed marvellous. For, in the middle of the hall,
four-and-twenty circular stairs soared to a circular platform, whereon
sat a lonely altar; and the whole place was made of some clear white
stone like polished marble, dazzling snow-white marble without veins or
mottling, and without any of the joints which are formed when slabs of
stone are laid in order one upon another: so that I could not determine
whether the wall had been builded with hands, or cut with incalculable
toil from the virgin quarry, or merely called into being by art magic.
But, though the hall was of most candid whiteness, the altar on the
summit of the circular foot-pace was of blood-red porphyry. And, being
(as it was) deep in the bosom of the grain-giving earth, the place
was lighted by a radiance, perennial, most agreeable to the eyes, the
source of which I am not at liberty to tell. Such was the secret hall
beneath Thebes.[10]
But I placed my magic apparatus on the altar, and on the foot-pace
pertinent thereto, all in proper order; and I sat down, with Amenemhat,
on the lowest step, to refresh our bodies with a meal in preparation
for the work before us. And, when we had dismissed the desire of eating
and drinking, so sitting we conversed as follows.
“I do not remember this white hall as it now is,” said Amenemhat.
“Hast thou then seen it before?” I inquired.
“When I was priest of Tanis, I oft-times celebrated the mysteries here.”
“And to what was it like then?”
“It was draped with white carpets of silk embroidered in silver with
images of the assessors of Amentet. And a carpet was hanged between
every pair of pillars, veiling the cloister from the hall.”
“Yet the hall will serve our purpose as well without its hangings?”
“Doubtless. But still it seems that some malignant sprite might lurk
in the shadow of those columns, watching, with intent to interrupt our
sacred rites.”
And hardly had the Tanitic priest uttered the last word, when a
blameless shape (very loathesome and ferocious, shewing nothing but
the accentuation of a tattered pendulous head and the thick rictus
of parts of a face), emerged from those very shadows, and rushed upon
us with mouth-foamings and hiccoughs and eye-rollings, hideously
screeching.
Amenemhat withered away with terror; and his mind wilted as he fell
swooning on the steps. But I, strongly bounding, leaped to the altar;
and, having seized my magic staff, and having made the terrible _Sign
of the Godlike Rulers_, then indeed I proclaimed the _Spell Which
Binds_.
The Shape stood, held by the mighty inchantment, a ridiculous and cruel
personage, gross and ceruminous, with an incomplete head dandling on
a tendinous neck. But I descended to recover my familiar. And, having
further bound the Shape with the _Word of Fear_, I drew back the mind
of Amenemhat to his body, fattening it with comfortable words. And anon
I required the Shape to decline to me his generalities, telling who and
what he was.
But he responded very obediently, saying: “I am Sanes, priest of
Osiris, warden of yonder purple altar, and long it is since I have
formed mortal speech with these remnants of my tongue.”
I then demanded, “Why, O hideous and excessive prelate, didst thou rush
out so menacingly upon us?”
“Because,” he said, “having seen no man since I know not when, I was
fearful that ye had evil designs. But, seeing that thou hast the _Sign_
and the _Spell_ and the _Word_, I must believe thee to be present with
the sanction of the gods. Yet, seeing that I (in my lifetime) was the
warden of this place, seeing that no man hath deposed me, seeing also
that (after my accidental but lamentable death) I was not properly
embalmed but did myself fulfil the cavities of the holy crocodiles who
ate me, I still must deem myself its warden.”
Thus having spoken, he wept fragmentarily. And I will say that I
rarely have seen anything more frightful than the tears of a shape
which (some centuries before) had been an eaten clergyman. Wherefore,
having required him to make his Mark with his finger (as it were) on
the stainless floor, and having counted the angles of the same, I said:
“Poor faithful Senior, thou shalt be relieved of thy wardenship and
speeded whither thou shouldst have gone ages ago.”
And I removed _Spell_ and _Word_. But, intoning the _Speeding Hymn_, I
bade the Shape to begone in peace to the dull region of Amentet, giving
him the _Word of Entrance_, and praying the Assessors to deal leniently
with him. For surely so dreary and so patient a watch and ward as his
should suffice to smooth many wrinkles from his sphere of gold.
And, with a joyful cry, the Shape collected his parts; and, leaping,
he evanesced. But we turned to the matter which engrossed us, having
dismissed the long-delayed ghost to his rest.
In this manner, I began to use my magic art in the secret hall of
Thebes.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] The tonsure is, of course, not pentagonal but circular. The bishop
who confers it does, however, ceremonially dip the clerk’s hair in five
places, _e.g._ front, back, right, left, and crown, while teaching the
tonsured to twitter: “_Dominus pars--haereditatis meae--et calicis
meis--Tu es Qui restitues--haereditatem meam mihi._” Hence, perhaps,
the epithet “five-pointed.” A.H.
[6] I surmise that these “gold quarter-ounces” were sovereigns. A. H.
[7] These words are written in late-Victorian English by what I take to
be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. A. H.
[8] These words are written in late-Victorian English by what I take to
be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. A. H.
[9] These words are written in late-Victorian English by what I take to
be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. A. H.
[10] Mr. C.’s statement would almost seem to indicate that Messrs.
Currelly, Dennis, Dalison, and Naville, the learned and assiduous
excavators of the subterranean sanctuary at Thebes (cf. _The Times_,
Tuesday, viiij Apr.) are only at the beginning of their labours. A. H.
THE FOURTH PAPYRUS
Touching the ordeal of the scorching staff, I consulted Amenemhat. He
had grave doubts as to whether it was lawful to protect the hand with
a magic unguent, or to hold the staff with tongs; and he stood by the
injunctions of the well-written papyrus which ordained that the staff
must be held in the hand. But, as for me, my dear mind foamed with
blood, and my stomach shifted inch by inch, and the gorge of me swang
to and fro, at the anticipation of the grievous anguish which I was
to undergo: although I knew that, by enduring the ordeal the first
time, I had summoned from the dead a master of magic, from whom I was
learning ineffable wisdom, and, that, by enduring the same a second
time, I should call from the dead a master of masters of magic, from
whom I might learn wisdom absolutely illimitable. But, notwithstanding
this, the heart in my bosom would take no cheer, but remained dull and
spiritless and weighted with premonitions of disaster.
Furthermore, while my mind was thus obliquing brusquely in the manner
of a crab, I needs must add to my perturbations by certain thoughts
about the gods of my own motherland. And I pondered the question
again, asking myself whether what I was meditating actually amounted
to apostacy. And I went over much old ground: for the point was a
very nice and subtile one. I told myself how that bad hierarchs and
far-from-immaculate anointed ones, all the most righteous of men, of my
race and age and tongue, had refused to let me serve my gods and theirs
in the manner which those divine ones inhabiting heavenly palaces had
themselves designed. And I enumerated, one by one, all the occasions
when the same blameless persons, out of spite or out of pique or out
of merely natural and ungracious cruelty, had chased me from temple
after temple with secret anathemas, denied me my rites, and withdrawn
from me the very hem of the skirt of fellowship. And I postulated that
a well-minded man must have a religion. Therefore, without disloyalty
to the gods of my own land, from whose worship my fellow-worshippers
cut me off, I pronounced that it was permissible for me, in default of
fulness, to use a moiety. Thus, then, I argued with myself, until I was
satisfied, that is to say satisfied as nearly as might be.
And anon I addressed myself to my task, placing the crystal orb
in the silver cup, and filling the last with Nile-water, while my
familiar poured into the thirsty trench below the steps that magic
emerald-coloured liquid, whose exact ingredients may not be told at
large. Which having been well-done, we prepared to summon a Great
One of the Greater Ones out of the Outer Immensity. And, for this
cause, that the one whom I was about to summon was coming from so vast
a distance of time, I knew that the heat of my magic staff would be
immeasurably greater at this second summons than at the first. For
movement is heat and heat is movement; and, the faster and longer the
movement, the fiercer the heat of the burning.
But, while the priest Amenemhat sprinkled beautiful-smelling
gum-tragacanth, I intoned the hymn _I am the One among the Forms
which the Eye the Only One hath created_, and the incantation called
_Of the Buckle of Red Jasper_; and then we both prayed to Ptah the
Pain-lessener to make my ordeal as endurable as might be. It is true
that I was not to have an additional burning from the fierce clear of
the moon, since I was (this time) far beneath the earth: but I ceased
not from my pure-minded prayers to Ptah, even when the crystal orb
began to glow. For I was convinced that some catastrophe was at hand.
Wherefore, fearing lest the sudden death of his summoner (and I
expected no less) should leave Amenemhat to drag out a weary existence
for ever on man-breeding earth--for a spirit reincarnated by means of
Nile-water must remain incarnate until his own incarnator shall permit
him to depart his body--then, indeed, I hastily gave to my familiar the
_Word of Freedom_, saying: “O Amenemhat, it seems that the time of our
separation is at hand. But I am loth to part, for thou hast taught and
served me well: but I will not help myself at another man’s serious
cost. Therefore I free thee from my bond of rule, that thou mayst
return to thy place when it shall seem good to thee. And, for thine own
sake setting thee free, O Amenemhat, I bid thee farewell.”
But his response came to me very thinly, very reed-like: for his body
instantly began to fade away from him; and he was fast becoming an
Osirian and a spider’s-web-coloured mist in my sight. And he said: “O
Nicholas, Conquistator of Peoples, I indeed thank thee for the respite
from the gnawing weariness of Amentet which thou hast granted to me, by
summoning me to tread the kindly earth for a space; and, in return, I
will unfold to thee some pages of the book of thy destiny. For, having
been and being now about to be an Osirian, I can read plainly in that
book: yet I may not tell thee all, for the gods have forbidden it. And,
ere thou hast lived another moon’s age, thou shalt see me as I used
to be: for I and thou are linked together in an unbreakable cycle of
nigh two thousand years. And I and thou will meet again in this land of
Khem, I the priest of Tanis, and thou: for that awful round of years
is----”
Thus he departed, leaving the unfinished phrase lapping against my
mind. But I was very grievously perturbed: for, unless I read his
prediction awry, I was doomed to die within the month. And I was not
ready, having an infinity (an inconceivable infinity) of things to do,
of souls to save, of sufferers to soothe, of oppression to remove, of
wrongs to put right, of liars and thieves and slanderers to confute and
to despoil and to shame, of cruelties to avenge with head-diggings and
eye-gougings and revenges and slaughters and maimings and stonings and
spine-impalings with much moaning, and many other mind-grieving evils.
For which causes I was not ready to die then.
Wherefore, arising with shoutings from my lethargy, I adjured the mind
in my dear breast to be very strong, very valiant indeed, very alert to
withstand Death’s insidious onsets. For, though I had seen many things,
I never yet had met personally beautiful Death the soother of men.
And first, I set myself to endure the ordeal in which I was engaged.
For lurid gleams were leaping from the emerald liquid in the trench,
wafting hot breaths in my direction.
Instantly, stripping off my linen robe and casting it outside the
circle, I again ascended to the porphyry altar; and grasped the
magic staff with my bare hand. Now that my mind was blazing with
firm courage, the staff at first seemed cold. Anon, a gentle wave of
warmth flushed through it; and a dart of anguish shot into my flesh.
Pang followed pang: stab pierced stab. More swiftly came fiercer
thrusts of pain as the heat increased. But I kept my mind fixed and
my lips addressed to Ptah the Pain-lessener. Great scorching flames
flowed from the staff over my hand and arm. I seemed to be holding a
nineteen-times-heated fire; and, yet, amid all the intolerable agony, I
was ware that this was but the beginning of my torment.
The heat of the flame was so intense, that I looked for my arm to
vanish away in impalpable ashes. Irresistible desire of dropping the
staff assailed me; and my fingers loosened a little against my will.
Like as the helmsman of a ship, whose rudder is shattered by wintry
storms, and who (knowing the right course) is unable to steer his
vessel, even so was I then. The staff fell out of my grasp: but the
silver chain, which looped it round my wrist, prevented it from rolling
away.
Instantly, the flames expired; and the lambent streamers in the
divination-cup died down. But I stood, alone, in darkness.
After a space of gloom and silence, I saw tiny golden sparks floating
in the vast circumferent void. But I watched them: for there seemed
naught else for me to do, nor was my will any longer inclined to force
leadlike unwilling limbs to act. And the sparks became spots. And
the spots became swiftly-rolling globes of light. I tried to utter a
_Spell_: but voice and hearing had deserted me.
I lay, crouched against the blood-red altar of porphyry. The globes of
light changed, taking wonderful forms. All my members were enfeebled;
and, indeed, only the mind in my breast was me. For my body had
renounced its allegiance to my sway, and had gone apart from me in
shocking rebellion, leaving me to die having nothing but my mind and my
mind’s eye, which saw and thought the very queerest things, the most
terrible, the most unheard-of.
All round me, I saw the spirits of my senses standing. On the left,
was my hearing: on his right, was my smell: on his right again, was
my sight: on the right of that one was my taste: on his right was my
touch. Above these, hovered my life, in the form of a small white bird
like a beautifully-crowned hoopoe. Behind them, were my powers of
speech and movement, very large, and sudden, and frightful. And the
mind in my breast told me that these things were so.
But all these shapes mopped and mowed and sighed at me; and my voice
made as though he would have derided me, his fallen master: but the
bird of life forbade him. And the shapes wagged and wavered horribly,
gesticulating among themselves; and some seemed friendly: but others
were undoubtedly hostile. And, suddenly, with a pitiful gesture, my
hearing put up his hands and dived cleanly into me; and I heard faint
voices, as one hears the whimpering of miners coming up a pit-shaft.
For my powers and my senses were arguing against me: but the bird of
life argued for me.
“Ye shall not leave him thus:” cried the bird.
“And who can prevent us?” shrieked the rebels.
“I,” said my life, “for I will not leave him; and how can ye wander
lifeless through the wide-bosomed earth when I am here refusing to die?”
Then, indeed, the mind in my noble breast spoke unwinged words, saying
the _Spell of Not Letting the Powers and Senses of a Man be Taken from
Him in the Netherworld_; and, afterward, I intoned aloud: “How now,
rebellious creatures, why dally in idleness when work remains to be
done? Know ye your master; and obey.”
And, with shambling gait and visages rueful and ashamed, my senses and
my powers obliqued each to his separate task.
But I staggered to my feet; and, seizing the divination-cup, I drained
its cool contents, looping my arm through the chain of the crystal orb.
And, at the moment, flames began to rise from the summit of the purple
altar. Whitish-green they were, ever-increasing in volume, as though
some mountain (a forge of the Kyklops) were vomiting from a new vent.
And the flames rose higher and higher, till they licked the very apex
of the hall ninety men’s heights above me; and there was neither smoke
nor vapour: but only fervent flames, humming and buzzing and bounding
upward with irresistible leapings. But, changing to violet, they
vanished, leaving the place in a violet glare wherein was the whirring
of wheels.
But I dismissed inertia; and, having my faculties under order, I began
to look upon these happenings with a wholesome curiosity.
In the midst of the wheels were faces and figures and events, faint
indeed at first, but growing clearer and firmer and more violent in
movement till they displaced the wheels. But I watched very intently;
and I saw the histories of mortal men of many different races being
enacted before my eyes. For, things (which then were past, and since
have been) were done in my sight in that secret subterranean hall of
Thebes. Kings and queens and emperors and princes and republicans
and patricians and plebeians swept in reverse order across my view,
all doing their deeds. Time rushed enormously backward in tremendous
panoramas. Great men died before they won their fame. Kings were
deposed before they had been crowned. Nero and the Borgias and Cromwell
and Asquith and the Jesuits[11] enjoyed eternal infamy and then began
to earn it. My motherland, the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart
stately Anglicans, melted into barbaric Britain: Byzantion melted into
Rome; Venice into Henetian Altino; Hellas into innumerable migrations.
Blows fell; and then were struck. Bearded men became smooth-skinned
boys. Death came first; and birth came last. All things changed save
one: silver Sihor’s living waters rolled down through the green streak
of Egypt and the sacred Delta to the innumerably smiling sea.
Thus, was I whirled back through the rolling wheels of Time.
At length events were still. The medley of scenes vanished. And I was
ware that I was alone with Another, Unknown, in a void of blackness,
impenetrable, save where the blood-red altar glimmered obscurely; and,
on it, was inthroned a Presence, shapeless, indistinguishable from the
murky gloom.
But I was not afraid. And anon a voice spake to me, saying: “O man of
many wiles and inquisitive mind, it is permitted to thee to have thy
will, seeing that thy will is good and not evil. And, forasmuch as
wicked and fatuous anointed ones are minded to neglect thee, wasting
thee, throwing thee away as worthless, forasmuch also as the Maker of
thy stars will not have His good work spoiled and His keen tool rusted
or blunted by disuse or misuse, therefore, employment is granted to
thee such as thine energy deserveth and as thy mind desireth. For which
cause, thou art put back in time; and several lives are given thee to
live, and several deeds to do, and several fountains of wisdom are
laid bare to thee, so that (being perfected by much striving) at a
favourable occasion thou mayst fulfil thy free and perdurable destiny.”
Thus having spoken, the Voice ceased. But I was alone, in the dark,
very alert, inexpressibly elated, hugging huge joys in my superior
mind; and my heart was throbbing like the tail of a lambkin in
springtime drinking life from the ewe.
But the hall rocked slowly and more rapidly, with lamps and tones
and the roaring of hurricanes and waterspouts and the vibrance of
unmentioned and unthought-of music. And long tongues of white fire
went before; and all the gods of Khem followed after in intolerable
procession, Osiris and Isis and Heru the Child, and hawk-headed Ra in
his splendour, and well-plumed watery Nu and Nut, and intelligent Ptah
excessive in magnitude, and ram-headed Khnemu, and birdlike Khepera,
and self-originated Tum, and feathered Shu, and lion-headed Tefnut,
and Zeb the cackler, and Heru of the two horizons, and dark Set, and
jackal-headed Anpu the way-opener, and ibis-headed Thoth the measurer,
and Maat the straight, and Net the lady of heaven, and Sekhet the eye,
and cat-headed Bast, and plumed Ansu with his flail, and mistress Ta
Urt, and Hapi of the South with the papyrus, and Hapi of the North with
the lotus, and Amen the Only One who has no second, and Mother Nut the
sky his wife. And, all the while, I heard the shattering shaking of
the sacred sistrum, denoting the presence of Divine Mother Isis, the
Greatest of the Three.
But the Voice spake yet again to me, saying: “O man of many wiles and
inquisitive mind, these are the forms of The Supreme, at this time to
which thou art come.”
But I gazed on the assemblage of the gods, until my eyes were blinded;
and, for a time, I saw no more.
Such, then, was the manifestation which I gained by magic art at Thebes.
_I, Empedokles son of Polypemon, a Rhodian, have written this. My lord
the king ceased from dictating these histories, in order that he might
lead a squadron of his flying chariots, waging against King Artavasdes,
who_ (_audacious_) _has demanded tribute. And the Divine Herakles has
gone with my lord the king. May unconquered Mithra, M.Z.L., P.S.U.,
D.O.M., S.H.C., M.E.L.F.,[12] prosper this undertaking. And I seal up
the scrolls, impressing the wax with my lord the king’s own sigil of
the crab and the moon. And these scrolls are written fairly by me,
and sealed by me, Empedokles, the scribe, by command of my lord the
king._[13]
FOOTNOTES:
[11] This synthesis strikes me as being really most remarkable. A. H.
[12] I can only elucidate these majuscules by reference to the
Henetian inscription containing the Mithraic Morning Litanies (_Corona
Matutina Mithraica_) lately discovered by Mr. Rolfe at Tauricellium
(_Torcello_): “_Manceps Zodiacorum Luminum--Pater, Sospitator,
Unificator--Deus Optimus Maximus--Sol, Heros, Creator,--Mundi Expiator,
Lustrator, Fautor._” A. H.
[13] Several words in these documents are not to be found in my
lexicons. On pronouncing them aloud, however, at a time when they
worried me dreadfully, I discovered that they were mere phonetic
traliterations, _e.g._ ΡΕΒΟΛΒΕΡ is evidently “revolver,” and I take
ΟΥΑΔΤϹ for “watch.” Though, why Mr. Crabbe could not have continued to
call these conveniences a “death-spitter” or a “fire-ball-spitter” and
a “time-teller,” respectively, is something of a mystery to me. Perhaps
we shall be safe in assuming that his attention, to the form of matter
which he dictated, varied in intensity from time to time. It does so
with the best of us. Nec semper tendet arcum Apollo. I surmise that Mr.
C.’s “death-parcels” were cartridges, and (from another indication in
the papyri) it may be asserted that they were tipped with an article or
convenience called a “dumdum.” A. H.
THE FIFTH PAPYRUS
_I, King Balthazar of Moxoene, having been victorious once again over
a barbarian people, and being wounded in battle, but not excessively,
dictate these words to Empedokles, my scribe, to pass the time._
Having seen, therefore, the vast white hall in the secret subterranean
temple at Thebes teeming full of the whole hierarchy of the gods of
Khem with all their relative appanages; and, having watched these holy
ones departing with the indicible pomp and splendour of their coming;
and, having heard the mystic voice which told me the meaning of these
manifestations, warning me of my connection with the same: anon, I was
left to ponder all these admirable happenings.
Now the hall was flooded with soft white light, as it had been when I
first entered it with Amenemhat. And, as I meditated, standing strongly
at my ease by the altar of blood-red porphyry, I was ware that white
carpets of silk (covered with silver embroideries) were looped from
column to column all round the immense circle, between each pair of
pillars a carpet hanging from capitals to bases. But the embroideries
represented the Assessors of Amentet: throned in state they were; and
they judged the dead, allotting some to the blissful abodes, and
others to the flaming house of Set who gnawed them with his teeth ever
champing in expectation of fresh meals. And, while I gazed on these
things, I remembered how that Amenemhat had spoken of similar carpets.
But, when I thought of that priest of Tanis, I was moved to hold a
council with the mind in my dear breast concerning many things. For
it seemed good to me to recall events in order, so that (knowing the
past precisely) I might understand the present and proceed securely to
the future. Wherefore, I reminded myself of my godlike dismissal of
Amenemhat at a time when I awfully needed a friend, of the ordeal of
the scorching staff, of the overwhelming and wily inquisitiveness which
impelled me to persist in spite of failure, of the mind-delighting
reward promised to my perseverance, of the flying whirling wheels
which swept me back through panoramas of Time, of the apparition of
the godlike company of Khem. And I considered all these things, fully
and turn by turn, before I laid them away in the cells of my memory,
as sedulous squirrels store nuts in hollow trees, making provision for
winter. But, when, at length, I was satisfied, I came down the steps
from the purple altar; and, gathering my priestly robe from the floor
where I had cast it at the beginning of the ordeal, I clothed myself,
and proceeded to the cloistral antechambers in search of the truck of
baggage which Amenemhat had trundled, from the outer future world,
into that arena of untimed immortality. For I was convinced that I no
longer stood in time where I had been, but rather more than nineteen
hundred years prior to the life which I had left. But, of this, I had
no particular or human certainty, but only a general or divine one, for
my watch told me that barely eleven hours had elapsed since my entrance
into the place; and I firmly prepared myself to find that those eleven
hours included nineteen centuries, and that the land of Egypt (which I
had left flourishing under the rule of Victory queen of the stalwart
stately Anglicans) was now cowering beneath the talons of Roman Eagles.
But, having wound-up my watch, and feeling very hungry, I refreshed my
body with the provisions in my baggage, leaving nothing for mice. Thus
I did, in the cloister behind the embroidered carpets.
Afterward, it seemed good to me to take such matters as would be
useful to me in my new life, and to dispose of the rest, before
emerging into activity in the sweet sunlight. Accordingly, under my
linen robe, I buckled on my belt of beautiful death-parcels with my
death-spitter in its proper sling. And, above that belt, I buckled on
my broad belt with the well-placed pockets, so that the two belts (one
above another) became like a thorax protecting my vitals. But, in the
well-sewn pockets of the broad belt, I bestowed my watch, and a box of
wax-matches,[14] and my gold and silver money, and my pocket-book with
its beautiful pencil,[15] and my Waterman’s Ideal Fountain Pen,[16]
and my Foreign Office Passport,[17] with the circular notes from my
bankers, and eight notes[18] each worth twenty-five ounces of gold.
Thus having prepared myself, I laced the strong sandals on my feet,
arranging the pleats of my robe conveniently to conceal what was
underneath, yet leaving all things ready to be snatched-at in case of
necessity. But there was nothing left, excepting my magic apparatus,
and the truck and lanthorn which had come with me to the place.
But, on pondering the thing again, I was ware (from the carpets between
the columns, and from a certain aspect of the porphyry altar), that
the temple in which I stood was no longer a deserted temple, forgotten
because buried by the lapse of ages, but actually a temple in daily
use. From which portent, I also was ware that it behoved me to be ready
to inflict my presence upon anyone (or at least to explain it plausibly
to anyone) who by chance might totter in my direction, and, indeed, not
to wait for such discovery, but to go at once in search of the society
of articulately-speaking men, and to take my share in life as I should
find it on the grain-giving earth.
For these reasons, then, I set my cabinet of essences and quintessences
in a darkish recess, hiding it, in case I should need it again:
but it remains there to this day. But I retraced my steps toward
the causeway, recrossing the dark river; and, coming there, I
broke my truck and lanthorn into pieces, and committed them to the
swiftly-flowing stream. But I went on toward the light of the outer
world, having the crystal orb (silver-banded with adornments of
rose-crystals and blue moonstones) hanging by its chain from my neck,
and the silver divination-cup in my left hand, and in my right the
magic staff with its silver chain twisted round my wrist. Thus, I
passed majestically through the antechambers; and a fold of my robe
inshrouded my head, lest my silver hair and beard should bewray me
to the shaveling priests guarding every portal. But they, seeing me
emerging from the holy place with a holy and even mind and wearing
priestly habiliments, were unperturbed; and, beside, the sight of the
very beautiful instruments in my hands, and the _Word of Silence_ in
the ancient tongue of Khem which I gave them in my passage, prevented
any doubts of me from afflicting their ingenious minds. But also, of
course, I was receiving favour from the gods.
So, at last, I stepped up through the secret trap-door on to the sandy
plain under the full blaze of radiant Ra. And I at once perceived a
difference. For the plain, with its low pillar on the spit of pebbles,
was the same, but infinitely smaller; and, below me, where I had left
desolate ruins, was a city heaped with mighty fanes and splendid
palaces. I, Nicholas Crabbe, liegeman of Victory queen of the stalwart
stately Anglicans, gazed with my live well-seeing eyes, not a puny
Luxor, but on Thebes of the Hundred Gates, Menes’ Thebes, Thotmes’
Thebes, the capital of the Upper Land, the great metropolis of the
south, in glory inconceivable, and yet not yet in its greatest glory.
For a time, I stood, musing at the wonder to which my wiles had
brought me, and contriving many plans. For, it appeared to me, that
(though I had done very well as a priest of Isis in extricating myself
from the temple) the mind in my lordly breast was yearning for a
wider more-strenuous life, in which my wisdom and my power (but now
considerable) might be used and (if possible) augmented. And, for this
reason, it seemed well to seek yet another guise before entering the
city.
But a certain remembrance set me searching the rock-strewn plain;
and, by chance, about an hour before sunset, by favour of some god,
I came to the cavity under certain boulders, where I had seen fit to
hide a small teak-wood chest lined with aluminium, when I came to that
place with my familiar Amenemhat. Now I am ignorant of the reason why
I found it there, for the time when I hid it there is even now very
far in the future. But, as I had found my baggage in the secret hall,
with the food (which I brought from the era of Victory queen of the
stalwart stately Anglicans) still sweet and fresh more than nineteen
centuries before its actual confection, I was not then, and I am not
now, disposed to vibrate the air with explanations of what no one can
understand. It is enough that I found my teak-wood chest in the place
where some day I shall no doubt hide it, and that its contents provided
me with easy and beautiful garments wherewith I promptly indued myself,
namely, a pair of brown leather boots, with a flannel jacket and
trousers, and a silk shirt and socks, all of a very pale grey colour,
and a soft felt hat of the same hue but of the shape affected by
Hermes.[19] But when I had clothed myself in these well-cut garments,
I buckled my revolver-belt outside them, and hanged a leathern
satchel, containing my crystal orb and my divination-cup, over my wide
shoulders. But I kept the magic staff in my right hand to twirl and
flourish by the way; and, so, I set out for the city.
A well-carved open chariot passed by; and the slave, driving, gazed
curiously on my strange form. Around me, on both sides of the wide
white road, brick-red tillers of the soil toiled with bent backs amid
the emerald crops. Another chariot passed me; and halted a little
further on for the naked charioteer to gaze upon me with jaw-dropped
amazement. At the gate of the city, I saw fierce Makedonians on guard,
clothed (as was the fashion of their race) with copper armour blazing
like red gold, and kirtles of the well-cured skins of ponies, and great
crested helmets on their heads, and long spears of tough ashwood in
their hands, very brave to look upon. And, as I came near, one (the
most righteous of men) said to his fellows: “I say, here is well-hatted
Hermes!”
“Aye:” responded another: “and the godly youth goeth attired for this
hot land in grey cloud-garments, shielding his tender skin from Helios
his rays.”
“Ho, stranger!” cried a third. “Stand thou, and say whether thou art
god or man, and what contraband thou bearest in thy bag, and whether
thou art friendly to the Pharoah.”
Now while the usual dirty little boys and loafers and inquisitive
women were assembling, I realized that I had to do with Argyraspides,
seeing that the shields of the soldiers were laminated with silver;
and, moreover, I perceived that they were offering me the _Sign of the
Shield-rim_.[20] But I used wiles, answering: “First tell ye me who the
Pharoah is, and why ye Argives serve the lord of Khem.”
Thus I spoke: but deep-seated indignation swept from their hearts
across their faces, even as Sihor’s stream inundates the thirsty land
in flood-time. And anon one chirruped: “O thou silly fellow! The divine
Ayletes is the Pharoah whom we serve.”
“Ayletes?” I cried. “Is, then, Ptolemaios Dionysos the Piper lord of
sacred Khem? And are ye Makedonians minions of the Lagidai?”
“Aye, stranger:” the blameless guard responded: “Makedonians we
are, but no slaves of that Flute-player. Of our own will we serve
Ptolemaios, for pay and for promotion. But, who art thou?” he
continued. “Who art thou, who seemest first to know nothing and then to
know everything? And why art thou thus garbed? And what bearest thou
there?”
Then, indeed, I was wily: for I made them the _Countersign of the
Shieldnavel_;[21] and I said, in a parable which he who has a grain
of sense may read: “I am Karkinos Gampsonyx called Oypogonos, son of
Kallikhronos, born of Nomadikos, begotten by Eypator son of Eygenes
who sprang from the great race of the Selenidai. And I go thus garbed
because I have a lordly mind to go thus garbed. And, in my hand, I bear
that which is Life. And, on my thigh, I bear that which is death.”
Thus I spoke. But the sentinels cowered before me, muttering among
themselves: “He knoweth the great _Countersign_: Yet he is not of
us, neither of present-born men, victims not masters of life and of
death: but he is some god or hero out of the Netherworld.” But to me
they said: “Pass freely, O Karkinos Oypogonos of the multitudinous
paternity, who art lord of life and death. And the Piper may stop thee
if he will: but we will have nothing to do with it.”
But I went smoothly into the city. And men cast wondering looks at
me, because of my strange aspect; but, because I had been able to
cause the insolent soldiers of the corrupt Lagidai to shrink from me,
I was sufficiently admired. Now the sun was near his setting; and the
mind in my breast earnestly desired to seek a small place of my own,
near water, where I might rest awhile, watching for an opportunity of
mingling advantageously with mortal men. For, indeed, I have ever had a
natural longing to be near water, and useful to men. Wherefore, having
found my way to the river, I addressed myself to an Argive colonist,
and he was a master of barges, who (by chance) was seeing his barks
laid up for the night. And from him I demanded the hire of a convenient
barge, intending to sail downstream to the Delta, that (during the
voyage) I might tranquilly estimate the wisdom which I had, and perhaps
acquire more, and also take part in such adventures as the gods might
assign to my treatment.
But the bargeman answered me, saying: “No barges, O lord, can pass down
Sihor to the Delta, now. For the wild mercenaries of the Pharoah have
mutinied at Anteiopolis for an increase of wages.”
“I know,” I said, “that there are masterless hounds everywhere.”
“But these, lord, are not masterless: for they serve Pyrrhos, one of
themselves, a ruddy-locked barbarian, who has made Thebes (the sacred
city of the ram-headed god) a byword through the Upper Land and the
Lower, requiring of us (as tribute) whole meals of the milk of mice as
well as a ransom of much gold.”
“But the guards of the Lagidai--” I began.
He interrupted me: “Lord, they league with Pyrrhos; and a share of his
spoils keeps them in their quarters while he bites our necks.”
“But, why do not ye, Thebans, resist this freebooter?”
“There is no strength left to us, lord, since the dread Pharoah
Ptolemaios Lathyros sacked Thebes: whom may Set snatch, and his heart
be eaten alive by slow-worms, hornets, and interminably-tongued
chameleons----”
“Peace, fellow!” I snarled. “Nor soil thine Argive mouth with barbaric
imprecations. And know that I will sail for the Delta, though a myriad
of outlaws be between here and there.”
“Then, lord, thou wilt go alone: for no boatman will risk his life.”
“Not for gold?” I inquired, shewing a handful of coins.
Then, indeed, the man wavered, curiously examining the money. But he
said: “Oh, where were these well-minted pieces struck? For they are
over-round and too well-stamped to come from a barbaric mint. And, O
lord, who art thou?”
But, being aware that he was as much in my power as though the knuckles
of my first and second blooming fingers clutched the tender nose
of him, and being desirous at length to make an end of bargaining,
I answered him, saying: “Whom I am, thou shalt know on a fitting
occasion: but, that I am to be obeyed, thou shalt know now. Let
therefore thine eyes gaze in this direction.”
With which words, I stretched out my magic staff to the life-giving
river, whispering a certain _Spell of Summons_. And the sons of
slime surged up with great swirlings, the many-fanged far-sweeping
crocodiles, while I slowly swayed my staff in rhythm with the
inchantment which sang within me. But they came in cohorts from far and
near, with huge eddyings of the dark-brown water; and they lay winking
in close lines by the jetty, expecting orders from me their summoner.
But the heart of the bargeman became like dripping in a hot pan; and
he said: “Lord, I perceive that thou art the Divine Hermes at least,
with that wonderful wand: for none but thou, and only thou on a very
important message from All-father Zeys, could do this thing.”
To whom I gave a stern word, saying: “Be ware of opposing the
counsels of Zeys, or of hindering Hermes. For the minions of Pyrrhos
have no more power over me than had the Makedonians of the Lagidai.
But, even as I command these sons of slime, so am I superior to all
earth-stamping men.”
“Dreadful lord,” he answered at once, “take the best of my barges: for
Nesamun my brother-in-law, who has more skill in boatmanship than I,
shall indeed go with thee this minute in his own barge.”
Having succeeded in my wile, I dismissed the Argive to see to the
business. But I waited, watching the crocodiles having their teeth
cleaned and blinking luxuriously, till I was tired of their musky
exhalations. And, having given them leave, they returned to their
stations in the slime. And anon, seeing that the barge was being
prepared very speedily, I bade the bargeman that his brother-in-law
should visit me; and to him I gave order that he should take a stock of
provisions, buying also a slave-boy of lusty form and a mind incapable
of fear, with other things which were necessary. Furthermore, I said
that all was to be ready for sailing at dawn. And, having offered
two quarter-ounces of gold of Victory queen of the stalwart stately
Anglicans to the bargeman for his charges, he foolishly refused the
same, abasing himself to the earth as before a god. But I, having
ascended the gangway, entered my cabin, where I ate a melon and some
cheeses and pigeons; and betook myself to slumber.
These things I did in Thebes of the Hundred Gates.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[15] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[16] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[17] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[18] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[19] All these words are written in English. A. H.
[20] The original has “ΑΝΤΥΞ.” A. H.
[21] The original has “ΟΜΦΑΛΟϹ.” It is extremely humiliating to
confess that I have not been able, so far, to trace this _Sign_ and
_Countersign_ to any existing Rite. I am deeply pained and mortified.
A. H.
THE SIXTH PAPYRUS
When Day with her white steeds was come (most beautiful to behold),
and the dawn was yet cool, then indeed I examined my barge with its
contents and its mariners. And I saw that Nesamun was a nimble and
mightily powerful youth, and that Yokkho the slave was slim and very
eager, both stripped for work, and of a brick-red colour, with long
black and white eyes, and closely shaven polls which they covered with
a napkin as is the custom among the Egyptians. But they carried girdles
in their bundles. And I saw that the barge was long and flattish,
having two bulwarks. But there was a chief cabin in the waist; and
the roof of it was like a deck: but the low waist was open. And, at
the prow, there was a smaller cabin, with a deck above it, whereon a
slave might stand to shove the barge off shoals and sandbanks with the
well-handled pole. And there was a third cabin at the stern; and the
steersman stood on the roof of it wielding the cunning steering-oar.
But, in the waist, was a lofty mast, with a triangular sail of woven
reeds and the cordage relative thereto. And, having seen all these
things, I inspected the baskets of provisions; and these were very
grateful to the mind. For there was fresh bread, and much wheat (the
marrow of men), and many cheeses, and fruits both fresh and dried,
with jars of wine from Kos and Korinth, and vinegar, and condiments,
and nuts. But, when I had given an order, all these things were
stored in the fore-cabin. And I bade the boatman and his boy to take
the aft-cabin for themselves, so that their smells might not come to
me, as I slept in the chief cabin, or took the air in the waist, or
on the main deck during the voyage. Not that they were in any wise
disagreeable, being both healthy and naked and constantly washed: but
so I willed it, for (at that time) my stomach heaved at the odour of
all mortals. And, these matters having been settled, Yokkho pulled
the gangway into the barge, while Nesamun pushed out on to the placid
bosom of Hapi-hallowed Sihor. But, when they had hoisted the sail,
a favourable breeze assisted the slow stream to waft us toward the
distant Delta.
In this manner, I departed from hundred-gated Thebes.
But I began to ponder the past: for this always has been, and always
is, and always will be, my singular habit, recounting in my dear mind
every particular of the things which I had done, or which had been done
to me, weighing their worth and import and possibilities, rejecting
some to fall into oblivion, but storing others in my memory until such
time when they might be used for my advantage. And, of all the things
which I had done during the last two days, there were two things which
I regretted. The first was that I had left my magic cabinet with the
papyrus-enkheiridion at Thebes; and the second was that I had left
my priestly robe and sandals in the cavity under the boulders on the
plain. But, nevertheless, the mind in my noble breast bade me be of
good cheer, relinquishing all matters, even greater than these, without
a backward thought; and going forward boldheartedly in search of fresh
adventures, and the more boldly as the more barehandedly, seeing that
greater wisdom is to be gained by the simple, and more blooming laurels
are to be won by the absolutely naked, than by the trained philosopher,
or by the heavyarmed. Furthermore, the divine ones inhabiting olympian
palaces put into my mind an unmentioned and unthought-of action. For
I remembered the prediction of Amenemhat, how he said that within the
month I should meet him again. For, since those words, Time had rolled
back for me, so that it seemed that I was now actually living in the
former lifetime of Amenemhat. And, also, it seemed that (if these
things were so) the friendly priest would be performing his functions
at Tanis in the Delta: to which place I, undoubtedly by the direction
of the gods, was at that moment proceeding. Wherefore, taking courage
from the thought that, though I had not all which I might have had,
still, I had a great deal, to wit, the prospect of meeting a friend,
the divination-cup, the crystal orb, and the magic staff, beside my
arms and my money all safely stored in my cabin, to say nothing of the
inestimable wisdom which I had so far attained, then, indeed, I became
cheerful of heart; and set myself to take my pleasure from what was
round about me.
For, as I walked about my deck, I saw the stalwart Nesamun poised
like some grand archaic carving in carnelian jasper, at one moment
lithe, and at another moment rigid, intent upon his business at the
steering-oar. And, at his feet, across the narrow aft-deck, Yokkho
was stretched at length, busy with fishing-lines which trailed behind
in golden Sihor. All around, were the rolling waters, bordered with
leaves like living emeralds; and, above, the great splendour of Ra
flamed in the turquoise-coloured dome of the heavens. Nothing broke
the stillness, excepting ripples lapping about the well-carved prow,
or when the slave laughed contentedly, drawing a silver fish from
the stream from time to time and tossing it to flap in a heap below
Nesamun’s feet.
But when fishes enough for a meal for my crew had been caught, for fish
is a food which my gorge rejects without even trying it, then I called
Yokkho to me, demanding that he should soothe me with singing. And,
having fetched a certain well-sounding harp from his baggage, he began
to tighten the strings. But I saw that the harp was an old one, very
dilapidated, and the gilding and the paint were both worn off, leaving
bare wood to be seen. And also I knew it for the harp of a priest of
Khem, though one of the glass eyes of the face on the base had fallen
out, and the face itself was so broken and discoloured that it was not
to be decyphered either as of a god or of a man. And the slave-boy said
that, having been rescued from a sunken temple-barge at Philai where he
dived for it, the harp had been damaged by water. For which cause, he
fitted it with new strings, the frame being still whole. And when at
length he had tuned it, crouching on his hams and pressing it to his
tender shoulder, then he opened his throat and began to sing. But his
song was in a rude metre, with a pæan of praise at the end of every
tenth strophe; and he would have continued singing even unto this day:
for his song was as interminable as that endless song of future Galatia
which will be called _Jean François de Nantes_.[22] But long before
weariness prevented his hand from twanging the strings, I myself called
for silence, demanding the name of his ditty. And he said that it was
one of the folk-songs of the watermen of the Thebaid. This, then, was
the song which Yokkho sang:
_Slowly return we
deeply deploring
great Hapi’s anger:
we have enanger’d
Sihor’s protector:
we must propitiate,
or we shall starve:
He is offended:
our nets go empty:
Let us lament it._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_Now let the Ueb
pour out the red wine:
now let the Kherkeb
offer our prayer,
that our petitions,
eager and earnest,
with a sweet savour
upward may fly,
mounting to Hapi
dwelling in Duät._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_Then will the dread lord,
dread lord of Sihor,
smell the sweet odour
and hear our prayer:
leaping from Eäru
amid the grain-fields,
and earthward flying,
the sacred Sahus
will speed his flight
to our rejoicing._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_Then he will fill
full, even fuller,
each fisher’s net,
till inward trawling
we seize the prey;
and load our boats
with Sobk his food.
All will be purchased.
But we remember,
in our good fortune,
Hapi the Giver._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour._
_We have offended;
and, on a sandbank,
we are held prisoners;
and the storm rages
tearing our sail:
winds blind us with spray,
while the sons of the slime
creep o’er our quarter,
each seizing victims
shrieking in vain._
_Great is Hapi:
worship Hapi:
mighty Hapi,
grant us favour...._
But when I had made an end of his singing, I gave him a small coin
of no value to me, which seemed to him wealth incalculable, he being
such a simple little fellow. And, having praised his pretty voice, a
most innocent one and not by any means shrill, I turned to Nesamun
demanding a meal. For, the sun being on his zenith, it was my pleasure
to eat before sleeping. And, having brought me cheeses and gherkins
and cakes of bread and fresh fruit and a jar of wine where I sat in
the shade of my cabin, the mariners went ashore and filled their
own bellies with the fish which they broiled in papyrus on a fire.
But, when they had bathed and returned to the barge, we again set
sail, Nesamun guiding the steering-oar, and Yokkho fanning me with a
palm-leaf where I slept in the cool cabin.
But, while I slept, it seemed to me that I was wandering near the
Treasury of Dreams which overlooks the meadows of Eäru in Duät of the
gods. And the monotonous song of the slave still hummed in my ears. And
anon, as my manner is in dreams, I found that I was all stark, without
a single stitch of clothing on me, having naught but my wings and tail
fixed to my arms and shoulders and legs at the back, wherewith I swam
in the air[23] like a beautiful expert seagull, easily and enormously
swooping. And I was flying finely balanced over my former (or future)
home in the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans.
Which place I have well in memory, having known it, in the life from
which I had come, and to which I infallibly shall return terribly and
invincibly armed with the wisdom of ages. But I remembered the limpid
river, and the little island with its precipitous cliffs save at one
end which sloped gently to the water’s edge and the wide-stepped quay.
And I recognized the distant river-banks, clothed with oak-forests and
steep pine-woods, purifying the air. And I looked southward to see the
rivermouth far away, kissing the lips of the innumerably smiling sea.
But I knew, also, the small old perfect fortress of grey stone, which
stood on the summit of that isle, where were velvet lawns bestarred
with daisies, and gardens of quaint herbs and sweet old flowers, and
the cedar-tree, and the ghent-azaleas, and the pergola furred with
honeysuckle and white roses and passion-flowers and dripping with
amethystine wistaria and asterial jasmine. And I saw the library of
ancient books for solacing my mind in wintertime when pinecones burn
upon the hearth. And I saw my three well-tailed kittens, the white and
the yellow and the grey, frisking round my tame white peacocks trailing
pearl-like prides indignantly across the pleasaunces and neatly cobbled
paths which lead down to the boat-house. There also, I saw my electric
gondogla, and my flat-bottomed huge-ruddered sailing bragozzetto. And,
too, I saw my sailors, John Marcus and Ermenegildo Falier by name, the
last telling horrible Venetian tales to my three servants, Bob and Bill
and Roddy, having finished their day’s work in my house and gardens.
But I swam in the air round and about the place, so near to the flag
of Saint George and the ensign of the Cinque Ports which flew from my
battlements that I could have touched the bunting with my hand; and yet
I was unseen by any mortal eye. Wherefore I flew back to the Treasury
of Dreams.[24]
And I saw the Master of Dreams summoning a certain blameless Dream,
to whom he said: “Go thou to such and such a priest of Isis, who
sleeps in a barge, near Koptos, on River Nile; and try whether he will
receive thee.” And the Dream, having wrapped a cloak of pink and tinsel
falsehood about him, leaped out through an ivory gate; and dived down
toward me, asleep, in the cabin of my barge. But, because he could not
find a foothold there (though he fought like a dog for it), he slank
back to the Dream-Master, to whom he sulkily snarled: “Lord, there
is that on that barge which prevents me.” Whereat, the Dream-Master
(having smiled and having dismissed him to his place) summoned another
Dream, to whom he gave a similar charge. And the second Dream donned
a cloak which seemed to be woven of dewdrops and the eyes of kittens
or babies; and he leaped out of another gate, and pounced like a robin
on my brow. And, with him, there entered to me Belmarduk the god of
Assyria, very brave with fringed vestments and well-curled love-locks,
attended by winged bulls and sphynxes and cherubs; and the heroes
Gilgamish and Eabani came flatly smirking sideways in his train. But
Belmarduk addressed me, saying: “By favour of the gods of Khem, I
come to thee in a land which is not mine; and my message is that thou
shalt be a king in Armenia, that is to say in Moxoene which is called
Magurturgadash in Naïri.” And, when he had said this, the traveller-god
departed as he came. But, in my dream, I wondered very greatly, being
overwhelmed with wave after wave of astonishment: even as a stranded
ship is washed by waves pushed by azure-haired earth-shaking Nun, the
lord of the ocean. For I was ignorant of the cause why any gods should
visit me, specially a strange god, or why Assyrian gods should visit
an Egyptian priest. And other doubts also assailed me. Wherefore, in
my dream, I mentioned my perplexity to our holy Mother Isis, the wise
goddess, whose priest I was, asking for news of these matters; and she
instantly answered me by the mouth of Tefeu her messenger, saying:
“_The god of Assyria came to thee: because the word hath gone forth
in the hall of fate from the abode of The Supreme, the Dweller in the
Innermost, Whose decrees nor god nor hero nor mortal can evade._” And
the scorpion-headed god shewed the _Sign of Life_ in token that the
Lady of the Marsh indeed had sent him. But, having done this, he fled
on uplifting wings to Duät of the gods which is above Amentet. Whereat
I awakened from my sleep.
Such was the dream which I dreamed in my barge on sacred Sihor.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] The title of this ballad is written in the French tongue in what
I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. “Galatia” is rather interesting,
perhaps. A. H.
[23] Of course I suppose that it is fairly well known, now, that Mr.
C. was the first living man of our era actually to fly of himself like
a bird or an angel, and not like a libellulan insect in an Antoinette.
The story of his (shall we say--are we quite justified in saying)
accidental discovery of the slight physical development which enables
this, need not be iterated here, I fancy. A. H.
[24] There is quite a considerable number of words in this really
singularly and exquisitely lovely pen-picture of the home of a hungry
heart, of a lonely soul, which are written in English in what I
unhesitatingly pronounce to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand. It is quite
unnecessary for me to indicate them. A. H.
THE SEVENTH PAPYRUS
But now the sun was near his setting, swathing the vast dome of heaven
with arras of green and lilac and rose and burning gold. And, on the
floor by my couch, the slave had fallen asleep, with the fan still in
his hand, and his gleaming limbs stretched out, smooth, brick-red,
decently folded. But, the air being cooler, I did not disturb him,
but remained lying on the couch, pondering my dream. And, the more I
pondered, the less I knew of the manner in which I might assist the
fulfilment of the Supreme Decree. But, above all things, I was anxious
to avoid the vulgar error of confusing particulars with universals, so
as not to lose the fruit of any revelations which the gods had intended.
And, while I was thus meditating, suddenly I remembered a certain
magic, by which one may learn a very great deal of the future; and
it seemed to me that, in this way, I might test the prediction of my
dream. But, indeed, it was the well-made body of my slave, straight,
quickening, and apparently spotless, meeting my eyes while I thought
on these matters, which recalled this magic from my memory: for it
may only be done with just such an innocent one. Wherefore, being
awakened, Yokkho opened his fearless black eyes and listened: whom I
commanded to slip into the river, and to return to me fresh and clean.
This he did. But I inspected him with the most careful minuteness from
head to foot; and, having found neither speck nor blemish anywhere upon
him, and his teeth sound and perfect, then I knew that he was worthy of
my purpose.
But, having seated him on the edge of the cabin roof, with his legs
hanging down, for there the light was strongest, I placed his right
hand on his knee, the palm being upward: whereon, with my Waterman’s
Ideal Fountain Pen,[25] I drew two squares, a lesser inside a greater;
and, in each corner of the outer square, I wrote the arabic numbers,
Four Two Eight Six, with a Three between the Four and the Eight, and a
One between the Eight and the Six, and a Seven between the Six and the
Two, and a Nine between the Two and the Four; and, in the top of the
inner square, I wrote the arabic number Five: but, under it, I put a
fair large drop of pure dichroic ink, purple-black, having unscrewed
the top of my pen. And, when all this had been well-done, I bade Yokkho
to bend the ridge of his supple back, looking attentively into the drop
of ink, and telling me what he should see therein. But, standing below
him in the waist of the barge, I looked up into his downcast eyes, very
long and lucid and fixed upon the drop of ink. And the black-fringed
eyelids gently winked from time to time in the ordinary manner: but,
being a very obedient slave, his gaze did not waver from the palm of
his hand.
Then, there came a moment when the winking ceased, and the eyes became
fixed wide open but still looking downward. And, when I, with a low
voice, bade him again to speak, telling the things which he saw in
the drop of ink, then, indeed, he spoke as one who at a long distance
speaks to himself, very gravely, very slowly, very solemnly, saying:
“_The silver god, pointing at the galley, slays._” Then his eyes
wavered, and again became fixed. And his voice continued, speaking
single sets of words divided by intervals as before; and he thus said:
_The silver god, in the temple, taking the bow which sings.... The
silver god, in the ship, speaking with the azure-haired god, on the
white horses.... The silver god leading the golden goddess, from the
dark.... The silver god, and the golden goddess, before many gods and
goddesses.... The silver god, and the golden goddess on a throne....
The silver god, following the star._ Having said these words, which
seemed to be nonsensical, he tired me. Whereat I smacked him, shaking
his hand till the dark ink trickled over his thighs; and so I dismissed
him to relieve Nesamun at the steering-oar.
Thus I did with Yokkho, without gaining the wisdom which I expected.
But, during the rest of the evening, while the boatman was sleeping,
I made no more attempts at explaining the past or foreseeing the
future: for it seemed that this was not permitted. But I myself took
the steering-oar, dismissing the slave to seek more sleep in the waist,
by the boatman. And, as we sailed along, I watched the sky turning
violet with an after-glow of rose-colour fretted with green, which
deepened into the clear dark heliotrope of night sown with innumerable
constellations, surrounding the white-blazing serene moon. But, when
the slaves had finished sleeping, they prepared a meal, and I refreshed
my body with food and wine, while Yokkho returned to the steering-oar.
But I inquired of Nesamun the name of the city which we were passing on
the right hythe, having seen a cluster of temples with their pylons and
flagstaves and very many houses there.
“Lord,” he answered, “it is the city of Khenoboskis; and, on the left,
should be the lesser Diospolis of the Lagidai which we used to call
Mutio. But, in the morning we shall water at Ptolemais Hermii, another
city of the Lagidai.”
“Our stay,” I said, “must be a short one: for I wish to come to Tanis
without delay.”
“Lord, hast thou not heard of the mutineers at Antaiopolis, who bar the
way?”
“Not my way, nor the way of the barge which bears me.”
“Nor the way of thy slaves, then, who attend thee:” added Nesamun very
quietly.
“Thou art not afraid?” I responded, inquiring.
“Nay, lord, for who can see with his eyes a god, unwilling, going
either here or there. But I also can fight, if fighting be toward.”
Now, when he spoke thus, I laughed without letting my memory be seen.
For I remembered that his brother-in-law and partner had taken me
for wing-footed Hermes, because of my strange aspect and the magic
inchantment which I did with obsequious crocodiles; and I considered
that the reputation of godship would do me no harm. But, looking also
upon Nesamun, as he crouched before me in the open waist of the barge,
more closely than I had looked hitherto, I was ware that he would
fight well, as one born for fighting, being of a species different
from that of other Egyptians. For he was a very mighty youth, in his
prime, and his four bones were large and very long; and, although he
had no muscles as youths of other races have, nevertheless his flesh
was extremely firm and sinewy, and his skin healthily tanned and as
smooth and polished as fine linen. Furthermore, I marked the immense
force of his supple shoulders and thighs, and the strength of his loins
and arms and deep-breathing breast. But, above all, I could read an
indomitable character in the poise of his head and the carriage of his
body, and specially in his fierce young eyes, which flashed so blackly
and so whitely when his mind looked out on me. For which causes, I was
not unwilling to have such an one on my side. And I opined that my own
not-inconsiderable strength, and my wiliness, together with my magic
and my arms, all assisted by the fearless obedience of little Yokkho
and the intelligent force of Nesamun, needed not to worry about the
resistance to be encountered.
But, nevertheless, I made my preparations. And, seeing another vessel
coming up the river toward us, I bade my boatman to hail her and to ask
for news of the rebels. Whereby I learned that, having been driven from
Antaiopolis by Psalkos Memmaïdes (the Pharoah’s general and governour
of the lower Thebaid), they had sacked Hisoris, and were now holding
the very place which I was intending to pass in the morning, that is
to say Ptolemais Hermii. And, having mentioned that the rebel-leader
Pyrrhos was the mightiest warrior ever seen in Egypt, the strangers
scurried fearfully toward Thebes, adjuring us to turn and follow them:
for, said they, to go downstream was to court an evil and somewhat
protracted death.
Having heard this, and having ordered my slaves to sleep by turns and
not to come within sight of Ptolemais Hermii before dawn, I rested
tranquilly in dreamless sleep. And, waking while it was yet dark, we
three bathed one by one, not disturbing the sons of slime, and also
refreshed our bodies with food and wine. Which having been done, I
instructed Nesamun and Yokkho for the fray, saying that they were not
to concern themselves with anything, excepting the swift manœuvring of
the barge, instantly and implicitly obeying my commands. And my first
stratagem was to lower the sail, lest it should be injured in the
battle which I expected. But Yokkho was to stand by with the cordage,
ready to hoist the yard immediately when we should have pierced our
foes. And Nesamun was to govern our course with the steering-oar
under my directions. But I buckled on my cartridge-belt and loaded my
revolver. And, when Helios Hyperion had driven the chariot of the sun
about an hour above the horizon, we drifted on the current in sight of
Ptolemais Hermii.
But, between us and that city, I espied a long and lofty galley,
propelled by forty oars, hissing toward us.
A glance at the alert eager faces of my slaves shewed me that all was
as I would have it; and, stepping into the waist, I inspected the
advancing enemy. The galley was crowded with mercenaries from stem
to stern. Red horse-hair streamed from their helmets. The shields
of some, who were Rhodians, bore the rose of Rhodes. The others, as
I learned later, were Karians. All wore white and blue kirtles girt
with well-made sword-belts: but owing to the heat of the land and the
feebleness of those who hitherto had encountered them, they neglected
their greaves and body-armour. The rebel Pyrrhos (most righteous of
men) stood on the prow, wearing a scarlet kirtle and a short purple
military cloak. His helmet gleamed with well-forged brass; and a plume
of red horse-hair sprouted therefrom. But the oars of the galley were
pulled by enormous portly Nubians, rolling-eyed, blubber-lipped; and
fiercely they snorted coming on.
“Stop, stranger!” shouted the blameless Pyrrhos.
“In whose name?” I inquired, dallying with my victim.
“In my name:” he answered.
“On what penalty?”
“Death.”
“For whom?”
“For thee. Spear me this confounded babbler, O Orkhos:” he cried.
A spear hurtled toward me: but, at my quick command, Nesamun zigzagged
the barge to let it pass, and held on a straight course as before.
The galley swung athwart the stream twenty long paces distant. But
I, raising my revolver and taking aim at the rebel-leader, bellowed:
“Pyrrhos, I give thy carcase to the sons of slime.”
And dark doom leaped from my finger and pressing palm, and sank into
the socket of his eye. And his life withered in the seat of wisdom,
so that his soul fled gibbering to the netherworld. But the carcase,
heavily lurching, fell, purple and bejewelled, dully splashing into
sacred Sihor; and crocodiles dragged down the shreds and tatters of its
fatness with bubbling swirlings.
But the blameless mercenaries sucked in their breath during a full
minute, being appalled at the sight of their leader turned topsy-turvy
by a noise like the yap of a small dog. But Nesamun held my barge
still, stem on to the galley’s side and twenty long paces from it,
ready to leap forward or backward at my word. But I said, very sternly:
“Thus, O ye rebels, do I treat prepotence and audacity. And thus, also,
will I deal with all, arrogant, who bar my passage.”
And, so saying, I paused, while I reloaded my revolver, that they
might evacuate their sites if they were wise. But, recovering from
their amazement, they took to hurling javelins; and the rowers bent
to their sweeps, turning the galley upstream and driving the dreadful
ram against me. Then, indeed, did Nesamun give proof of his quality,
nimbly leaping to and fro on his narrow station to avoid the hissing
darts and (at the same time) wielding the steering-oar so dexterously
that we circled round the cumbrous galley, always maintaining our
relative position. But I, partly sheltered by the bulwarks, fired into
selected eyes or ear-holes of the rebels, as their destinies presented
the same to me. For the pure lust of fighting, which never before
had really inflamed me, had come upon me; and I laughed hideously in
bloodthirsty glee as my enemies fell to my hand. And those, in whose
wet eyes my bullets quenched their blunt-nosed heat in fizzling,
tossed their useless limbs when Death entered to drive out Life; and
their knees slackened as they flopped into the river, where crocodiles
anxiously scrambled for morsels of them. But my last shot slew two
Karians, passing through their ear-holes, and also a Nubian in whose
it remained. And the current threw the sweep, slipping from his dead
hands on to the oars of his fellows, causing a shocking confusion, in
the midst of which I recharged my revolver a third time.
But the rebel-helmsman was already a refection for the sons of slime.
And, the galley having swung right round so that it now lay between
me and Thebes, I saw that the mercenaries desired to escape upstream,
being no longer inclined to have dealings with me. Wherefore, having
sent fourteen in all of them to Osiris, I gave a word to Nesamun and
Yokkho. And, instantly, the sail ascended to the top of the mast, while
the boatman brought us about into a favouring breeze; and, as an eagle
spreads his pinions having satiated his hunger with a prey, so we sped
on toward Ptolemais Hermii.
In this manner I disposed of an impediment on sacred Sihor.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] English. A. H.
THE EIGHTH PAPYRUS
But, as soon as the barge was going swiftly with wind and stream,
Nesamun fixed the steering-oar, and came forward with Yokkho to adore
me. And, having laid their two bodies (gleaming with wholesome sweat)
at length at my feet, then they praised me in the Egyptian mode. But,
when they rose up, we refreshed ourselves with cups of wine; and the
boatman collected spears and javelins which were sticking in various
parts of the barge, and stacked them in tidy bundles near the prow. But
the slave brought sweet water for bathing a wound in my left forearm,
which had appeared to be a deep one: but, when the drying blood was
washed away, it was seen to be merely a scratch. And he bound it up,
using the nimble tender fingers which had waited so patiently, during
the fight, to hoist the sail at the very moment when I commanded
afterward. But, when I had rewarded them each with a handful of
Egyptian silver, I retired to my cabin, the radiant sun being near its
height; and, anon, dark sleep embraced me.
And, once again I was disturbed by conceptions not of a restful
nature. For, while my body slept, the mind in my dear breast concerned
itself about innumerable ideas, asking unanswerable questions. It
was quite clear to me that I indeed was living a new life: but I was
not certain as to whether I was still a man, or really (as people
opined) a god. And I laughed at the latter notion: because I never
before had heard of a Yacht Club member (as I am, having compounded my
subscription and never having been expelled), who also was a god of
sorts. But, god or man, I supposed that I still had the right to put
the address of the club on my visiting-card. And once more I laughed
at the notion of leaving visiting-cards on Gajus Julius Cæsar, and
Marcus Tullius Cicero, and the whole blameless gang of venal (but
Roman) old-fogeydom, whom I actually might see in the flesh within a
month, simply by crossing the unvintaged sea. But the scratch on my
arm smarted, in what I took to be an ungodly manner: for I knew not
then that the blessed gods are ever so much more sensible to pain than
your mere man, having made men in a godlike image, but having given
them only the sorriest fraction of a godlike nature. And the Whole is
naturally greater than a Part of a Whole. But I persuaded myself that
I was a man, at least so far. And, yet again, I laughed at the notions
that I, a subject of Victory, queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans,
was also an Egyptian master of magic, and, that I, a catholic of the
Apostolic Latin Obedience, on whose agonies of cold and hunger and
thirst and mind-maddening loneliness the foundations of Westminster
Cathedral were laid, was also a priest of Isis. And a doubt came to
me from I know not where, as to whether there were in fact any gods
at all, beside those which men are wont to make in their own idiotic
image,[26] and (if, perchance, there ever had been gods), whether they
had not all retired from business, to die at their ease, having grown
so feeble that mortals could handle them rudely even before windy
Ilion far back in the morning of time. Or, perhaps, the gods of the
Argives had gone into partnership with the gods of the barbarians.
For there certainly were gods in barbaric places, and my eyes had
seen them; and I began to contrive new wiles for seeing them again
one after the other, asking them to send me back to my own time, if I
had a time. But I became displeased with the frivolous manner of the
thought of visiting immortal gods who inhabit olympian palaces. And
yet, I asked myself, why should I not visit gods, who had been visited
by a strange god, even Belmarduk the god of Assyria with his attendant
heroes. And that notion, that a god should have taken the trouble to
come from distant Assyria to visit me in the land of Khem, convinced
me that (if indeed I was not in truth a god) I was extremely important
as a man, being certainly the sole representative of The Great Queen
Victory, queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans, in the Egypt over
which the Pharoah Ptolemaios Ayletes ruled. And that idea reminded me
of my Foreign Office Passport, and of the risk (which I was running)
of being arrested as the possessor of an undecypherable document. But
I scorned that; and began to contrive yet newer plans for going to
see the Kolossos of Rhodes when I should have finished my business
with Amenemhat at Tanis. And the last notion made me think of South
Africa,[27] and the colossal man Umgugondlhovu (as the Zulus name the
rumble of an elephant) whom I had left overshadowing that country,
with the hybrid horde of I.D.Bs. and polemic georgics,[28] all the
most righteous of men, who infested his vicinity. And the notion of
an elephant reminded of a circus. And the notion of a circus gave me
a foresight of the green and blue factions of Purity and Holy Wisdom
striving in the circus at Constantinople. And, from Constantinople
onward, notions came to me in crowds, notions of Turks, Bulgarian and
Albanian atrocities, the traitors Gladstone and Asquith, the treaties
of The Hague and Berlin, the German Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Karl
the Great, Rome, Pontifex Maximus, Saint Peter, strange gods, with
whom I had no time to deal separately owing to a pressing engagement,
but merely checked off their names as the procession hurried by. And,
then, having come back to the notion of strange gods with which I had
started, I bounded out of my dream.
And, instantly, to me there came the last words of my dream, namely
“strange gods,” said in a fat phlegmatic voice near by.
To which the strong tones of Nesamun firmly answered, saying: “I have
said that my lord is indeed a god. I myself am loyal to the Pharoah;
but I dare not stop until my lord the god bids me. And he is asleep.”
“Let us see this strange god who journeys in a hired barge. Awaken thy
god, O slave, and let us see him:” the fat voice wheezed.
But I, slinging on my revolver again, stepped out of the cabin. And,
at sight of me, the boatman shut his full red lips; and leaned easily
upon the steering-oar, as one whose part is well-done. But I perceived
that a royal galley lay alongside, which bore a very inquisitive negro,
richly garbed and of hideously inconvenient obesity. Whom I austerely
addressed, demanding his generalities.
“I,” he said, in a quieter tone, “am the Pharoah’s private detective;
and I stop all boats which come downstream to satisfy myself that they
are not sent by the rebel-mercenaries.”
“These spears and javelins,” I answered him, shewing the stacks,
“are branded with the Rose of Rhodes and the Crane of the Karians;
and they were drawn out of the holes which thou mayst see among my
bulwarks: into which holes they first were hurled by the rebels. Judge,
therefore, whether the rebels would thus have assailed their friends,
or their foes.”
“But, if ye be foes of the rebels, ye must have passed them by.”
“That is true,” I said: “for I encountered them above Ptolemais Hermii,
where I slew Pyrrhos and thirteen of his gang; and so I passed them by.”
“Dost thou say that thou hast slain Pyrrhos and thirteen of the
mercenaries? Either thou art indeed a god, or a hero, or a very great
liar. And, as I take thee for the last, I shall detain thee while I
inquire into the truth of thy story. If it be true, thou shalt be
compensated. If it be false, prepare to suffer certain torments.”
Thus rashly he spoke, beating his ceruminous belly: but I, glowing with
anger, said: “And dost thou, O mountain of impudence, think that I, who
have outfaced a whole galley full of armed Greeks, will be stayed by
any emasculate slaves of the Lagidai?”
“Hear the voice of the god, and give ear to long-armed Psammy lord of
apes:” the fat phlegmatic negro exclaimed in a tone of derision.
But my blood boiled because my rather-long arms were mocked by a
blameless black man; and the lust of battle inflamed me again, making
my great strength as the strength of nineteen; and the ferocity of the
long-curving fiercely-clutching claws of a crab inflamed the hands of
me. For which causes, and knowing that it would take a better man than
a bloated nigger to stand up to me, I bounded from my bulwark to the
galley, terribly bellowing. And, alighting near my scoffer, I rent the
well-toothed jaw from the head of him, and smashed the rest of his face
to a purple pudding therewith. Also, tearing his fingers asunder like
a rag, I split his right hand up to the wrist; and, so, I tossed him,
devoutly hiccoughing his physical agony, as an offering to the sons of
slime.
But I turned swiftly to seek another victim. And, on the prow,
an archer stood balanced on long slim straddling legs, drawing a
brass-tipped arrow to his ear: but its point was toward me. And him,
complaining bitterly, I also sacrificed to the inchanted crocodiles.
But, being now well in the way of fighting, I snatched at my revolver;
and, by chance, my hand touched the magic staff hanging from my belt.
And the potency of it caused certain admirable events. For, first, my
wrath cooled, and instantly died away: but I myself began to utter
wily words in my usual manner, pointing the staff at the crew of
the Pharoah’s galley, and saying: “Ye have seen the dire fate which
overtakes those who temerariously oppose me. Be wise, therefore. Stand
not in my way: nor follow me too far.[29] But draw off speedily, lest
a like doom should afflict you also.”
But, when I had spoken thus with my mouth, I added the _Spell Which
Binds_ with my mind. And, being bound, they remained whimpering, but
as still as stones: but I, returning to my barge, washed my hands and
resumed my journey.
After this manner I did with the Pharoah’s objectionable private
detective.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] I really cannot resist preserving this most pleasing pleonasm. A.
H.
[27] It is perhaps unnecessary for me to mention that this papyrus
simply bristles with words neatly written in English of course by Mr.
C. himself. A. H.
[28] This is the most cryptic allusion in the present fragment; and
I must confess that it puzzles me sadly. I am given to understand
that “Iota Delta Beta” sometimes signifies “Illicit Diamond Buyer,”
an obsolete species of South African criminal. But what kind of
thing a “Military Agriculturist” is (for that is what Mr. Crabbe’s
Greek means), passes my comprehension. I have therefore rendered the
expression by a simple transliteration of the original. A. H.
[29] I simply can’t help lifting this sentence clean out of Meredith’s
_Harry Richmond_; and I defy anyone to give a neater version of Mr.
Crabbe’s original, “ὉΠΩΣ ΜΗΤΕ ΑΝΤΙϹΤΗϹΕΙ ΜΟΙ; ΜΗΤΕ ΕΨΕΙ ΠΟΡΡΩΤΕΡΩ.” A.
H.
THE NINTH PAPYRUS
Now it seemed to me, when I pondered the thing, that it was a
misfortune. For, when a wily stranger desires to pass through a foreign
country for a certain secret purpose, it is but prudent for him to
refrain from marking his road with homicides. Even my victory over
Pyrrhos, though the Pharoah would pension me for slaying his enemies,
gave me notoriety instead of the oblivion which I preferred. But the
matter of the face-marred negro was indeed grave: for he was an officer
of the Pharoah. For which cause, I perceived that the blessed gods
would have me in Tanis without delay, that I might find my friend there
and perform my business in seclusion. For a man may seclude himself far
more easily in a city (excepting in a certain city) than in the open
country. So, for three days, I sailed in peace, resting my body, but
contriving many new wiles.
But the possession of the barge and of the two slaves weighed upon me.
For, having considered that I was going to a strange place, in search
of one of whose existence in the flesh I had no actual knowledge, I
determined that it is well (in all warfare) to provide a base for
operations, and one which can be moved upon occasion. And it seemed
to me that the barge and the slaves were precisely what I wanted. Yet
I did not know whether they would serve me willingly at the end of the
voyage for which they had been engaged; and, in a delicate matter, I
will have none but willing and (indeed) devoted assistants. With these
notions in my mind, therefore, I used winged words, questioning Nesamun
and Yokkho while they piously shaved each other’s heads. And I elicited
that, when Nesamun’s sister married the Argive bargeman at Thebes, the
two mariners joined together in partnership, Nesamun being owner of the
barge which I had on hire, and the three barges which we had left at
Thebes being the property of his brother-in-law. Also, I learned that
Yokkho was the son of another sister of Nesamun, both his parents being
some time guests of the Divine Osiris in Amentet. Moreover, I learned
that both were perfectly free to dispose of themselves as they pleased,
and that on reaching Tanis nothing remained expected but that I should
dismiss the youth and the boy with a gift, for they refused to take
hire from a god: they, then, in the ordinary way, would convey another
passenger upstream, returning to Thebes while I went back to heaven to
attend to my godly affairs.
But, after I had heard all these things, and while I was weighing
them in my mind, Nesamun and Yokkho crept nearer, laying themselves
out at length on their faces very straight at my feet, and begging
me not to send them away. And I, having considered their intelligence
and fidelity not less than their agility and strength and quite
singular comeliness, did not peremptorily deny them. For, in fact,
the Nesamunity of Nesamun and the Yokkhoism of Yokkho were far from
displeasing me.[30] Moreover, the words which Yokkho had intoned, when
he looked into the palm-mirror, suddenly climbed out of my memory and
buzzed at me. He, indeed, had chaunted: “_The silver god, pointing at
the galley, slays_:” and undoubtedly I (not old but silver-haired,
and a god as they called me) had slain Pyrrhos and certain few on a
galley, pointing my death-spitter at his eye. But that was only one of
the things which the clear-seeing slave had predicted, being the first
of his utterances; and, perchance, the others also would be fulfilled
in their order. And I became sorrowful because I had smacked the
clear-seer nor paid due heed to his sayings. But, calling on Memory for
a really violent effort, I recollected the seven predictions, each in
its turn, writing them in my hand-book; and I perceived that, next, the
silver god would take a singing bow in a temple. Now, supposing myself
to be the silver god, it was quite certain that I was about to visit a
temple, seeking Amenemhat; and I opined that, there, I should engage
in some adventure of a singing bow at the pleasure of the gods. Which
adventure I began very eagerly to anticipate. But, meanwhile, Nesamun
and Yokkho lay stretched at length before me in supplication.
And I determined that it would be greatly to my advantage to have the
commodious barge at hand, as a base of operations, as a retreat, or as
a means of retirement, should such be desirable. And I also determined
that good slaves, who are willing slaves, are very hard to find, and
(when found) ought to be cherished and used rather than rejected and
wasted. And, lastly, I determined that these two, being well-made in
mind and body, were very proper subjects for my magic arts, and likely
to be of inestimable value. For which causes, I granted their petition.
And, having bought their persons from themselves, paying two gold
quarter-ounces to Nesamun for himself and one to Yokkho for himself, I
bought also the barge and its apparatus from Nesamun for another gold
quarter-ounce, all in the coinage of Victory queen of the stalwart
stately Anglicans. And so we came nearer to Tanis.
But, during the last hour of my journey, I cut (from one of the
Rhodian javelins) the little wooden emblem which none know save only
the priests of Isis, without which none may penetrate the sanctuaries
of temples. And I added it to the implements which I was to take
with me on my quest of Amenemhat. And, having concealed all my other
gear beneath the floor of my cabin in the presence of my slaves, in
their view also (using my magic staff) I summoned the sons of slime,
committing the charge of my goods to Nesamun and Yokkho, with a crowd
of inchanted crocodiles for witnesses, whom anon I dismissed with the
_Word_.
Thus we came to the last reach leading to Tanis which sits on both
hythes of the river. But, skimming onward, we passed the little fane of
Pasht, marking the site of the old city-wall which the hordes of Okhos
had destroyed in the days when Nekt-Nebf was the Pharoah. And we found
a small quay below the city, secluded and abandoned, very suitable for
a voyager desirous of privacy. But here my journey ended.
And, as soon as the barge was anchored, I sent Nesamun girded into
the city to buy a length of fine linen, and to replenish my store of
victuals and drink. Furthermore, I bade him to buy for me a necklace of
heliotrope stones and a posy of fresh marigolds, for a new wile which I
had invented. And, when the slave returned, I made a priest’s surplice
of fine linen, wherewith I vested my body, placing beneath it various
convenient matters. But, when I appeared as a priest to them, I bade
the slaves to clean the barge, and to pitch it within and without with
pitch of Zakynthos (which pitch is the best), and also to keep it ready
to start on a new voyage at a moment’s notice either by day or by night.
Thus I spoke; and instantly I stepped ashore. But, when the two slaves
popped their heads above the bulwark to observe my going, then,
indeed, I rubbed the marigolds in my hand against the necklace of
bloodstones which I wore, moistening the beads with the flower-juice;
and, having made the proper _Act of Will_, I forthwith vanished away,
simply becoming invisible at two paces’ distance, and all in broad
daylight. And this I did as very becoming to a god, and also to confirm
them in fidelity, for a slave will not play his lord falsely when he
has no certainty whether his said lord is here, or there.
In this manner, I came to Tanis.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] This sentence is exquisite in its justice. If we moderns only had
the gumption to let ourselves be guided by the great natural law of
Sympathy and Antipathy as naïvely as Mr. Crabbe appears to have done,
how many failures, and (one can even say) tragedies, would be avoided.
A. H.
THE TENTH PAPYRUS
But I wended my way through the city, having taken my visible shape
again in a dark entry. And I passed the walls and the gates, and the
temples with their pylons, and quays thronged with merchants of all
nations and slaves of all human colour. And I saw the galleys of the
Sidonians, and the light barks of the Sikels, with heavy merchant-ships
from Rome, and Argive biremes and trading sloops. But a great
quinquereme lay in the fairway of the mighty river; and it flew the
royal purple standard of the Lagidai, denoting that a prince of Egypt
was on board. And, everywhere about me were the insolent mercenaries
of the flute-playing Pharoah, standing in crowds: nor did any soldier
stand alone, save the sentry on the great ship which swang at anchor in
the current of the Tanitic branch of life-giving Sihor. Yet, great and
busy as it appeared, Tanis had but a small part of the shadow of its
former greatness when it was the chief city of the Lower Land. Slowly
and surely had that greatness faded, as a well-painted wall fades
unsheltered from the stress of storms in some northern land, when wind
and rain wipe away the fresh pigment, leaving a tasteless thing behind.
But heavenly Ra poured down very hot radiance from the
turquoise-coloured vault of heaven; and the streets were crowded with
evil-stenched mongrel folk, half-Argive, half-sons of Khem, mingled
with the Hebrew hawkers who trot everywhere. And, because the mind in
my lordly breast desired to pass a word with articulately-speaking
men, I looked about for one with whom I might suitably address myself.
And I selected a haughty Roman, wrapped in pride and a purple-bordered
paludament, who surveyed the quays and the market-place, while a slave
sheltered his bare head with a sunshade of ostrich feathers. Whom I
approached, intending to converse with him. And, coming nearer, while
a squadron of Makedonians passed by, I heard the blameless creature
muttering to himself in his own tongue, saying: “Gods! That men calling
themselves soldiers should slouch in that manner! Perpol! But a cohort
of ours would outmatch a legion of theirs!”
But I let the pride of race inflate me also, most superbly; and thus,
in the Argive tongue, I saluted him, saying: “Hail, O senator. And how
likest thou these mercenaries of the Lagidai?”
But he began to grow black fastidiously, because one unknown should
have addressed him without introduction: but, when he saw how large I
was and how assured my gait, he answered me in Latin, saying: “O man
of the vast shoulders, whoever thou art, speak to me (I pray) in the
language of Rome.”
To whom I repeated my question as he wished. And he responded:
“Indifferent well. But tell me, why dost thou (a stranger) dare to
address me?”
“Thou,” I said, “art not a god, that I should worship thee.”
“But,” he answered, “I am a Roman citizen.”
Him I immediately coughed at, saying: “Never yet have I been told that
Roman citizens are the gods whom men ought to worship.”
Whereat, having blown off a little indignation, he laughed hugely; and
would have known more of me; but I indifferently turned away to hire a
litter in which I caused myself to be borne to the great temple of Isis.
But, when I reached that place, I began to walk very warily, making
inquiry of the priest on duty in the portico. And, because the most
wily way of dealing with earth-walking men, enmeshed with stupid petty
deceits, is to be quite truthful and quite straight and never anything
but bold, therefore, I instantly asked for my friend Amenemhat, priest
of Tanis, who, being bound to me by sacred spells, would (with me)
enjoy a mutual pleasure from a meeting. And, Amenemhat not being an
uncommon name among Tanitic priests, if (perchance) my inquiry should
bring to me one who was not the Amenemhat whom I desired to see, then
I still possessed sufficient wisdom and magic apparatus for disposing
of him in a suitable manner. On this account, I openly inquired for
Amenemhat in the portico of the temple at Tanis.
And the watcher-priest answered, saying that Amenemhat was engaged in
celebrating mysteries, and could not be seen at the moment. To whom I
shewed the _Sign of the Peeping Thumb_, saying that I (also being a
priest) would enter and pontificate with my friend. But the other still
delayed me with gentle words, saying: “Sir, I do perceive that thou art
a very notable mage and also an initiate priest possessing singular and
admirable secrets: for, up thy sleeve, I see the silver chain which
binds a master’s staff to thy wrist. Nevertheless, our rites are so
sacrosanct and so solemn that not even the high priest of Ra at Thebes
may intervene in them. Wherefore, O master-mage, be propitious; and be
pleased to repose thyself awhile in a cool room, refreshing thy body
with fruit and wine: for the day is hot, and thou seemest to have come
from very far.”
But I agreed with alacrity, for my throat was twisted with thirst.
Moreover, I saw something; and, beside, I well-knew the ways of
priests, who always may be led by the nose by anyone wily enough to
agree with them. And together we strolled into a cool antechamber,
having an apsidal recess wherein we seated ourselves on cushions. And,
over the recess, was carven a winged image of the Divine Ma, as above
the Pharoah’s throne, deep graven in the black rock of Syene and filled
with fine red gold. But the watcher-priest, having named himself to me
as Mensau, tapped the floor with his white ivory walking-staff; and
acolyths of the temple, very straightly formed but plump, robed in
fine linen, with their shaven heads roundly-shining and increasing the
long blackness of their eyes,--these, indeed, brought trays of fruits
and wines and a excellent beer of their own brewing. And, having laid
these before us, they flitted away, leaving me alone with the priest.
He seemed to be about my own age, whatever that may be: but he was
straight in figure as the fragile Egyptians are, and his face was like
smooth ivory, well-carved, wise and gentle of mien. And, having filled
a cup of Korinthic bronze (which is platinum)[31] to the brim with good
red wine from a well-chased Alexandrian flagon, he offered it to me.
But I chose beer: so he took it for himself; and, leaning toward me
watching him very warily, he began to speak, saying: “Health to thee, O
expected Wanderer.”
But my wile was to lead him on, secretly compelling him to shew me the
way to the very root of the mystery, which I had suspected, and now was
assured of. Wherefore I, all unmoved, responded, saying: “Health also
to thee, O Mensau, priest of Isis, who wearest the garb of a priest of
Ptah perchance for coolness’ sake. And, as I perceive that thou knowest
me, tell me now how long will that other deny himself to me.”
“Dost thou then know me, O Nicholas?” he asked, surprized, but smiling.
“Yea: I know well the Amenemhat who looketh out of thine eye-holes.
But thy form is strange to me:” I responded magniloquently.
Thus I spoke. But the mind in my noble breast began all of a sudden to
tell me all sorts of things: so that I knew that the form, in which
I had known Amenemhat at Thebes, was a form which I myself had given
him by the merest haphazard and in something like a violent hurry,
having summoned him from tiresome Amentet, to be my familiar, and being
unable to use him in the form of hot eyes and a jelly. And, also, I
knew that I never had seen him in his own form, which his father and
mother had made for him by the help of the gods of his stars. And,
having understood all these things, I fell into a muse, because of the
infinite number of causes and effects which a seeker after wisdom must
acquire, and arrange in his mind ready for use at any moment.
But, even now, weighted and bedazzled as I was with unthought-of
wisdom, all was not quite clear to me. I, therefore, continued to
speak, saying: “Nevertheless, O Amenemhat, though I know thee, and
though I am beginning to know thy real form which is other than that
which I gave to thee at Thebes, still, my mind is doubtful, not of the
What, nor of the Where. The dimension of Space is known to me: but what
of Time? I understand the Categories, of Substance, of Quantity, of
Quality, of Relation, of Action, of Passion, of Place, of Position, of
Possession: but I do not understand the When. Have I already lived and
summoned thee from Amentet nineteen hundred years hence? Am I living
now another life nineteen centuries before I was born? Or is this all
some dream and some weird vision in those secret halls of Thebes? Or
what?”
“Nay,” Amenemhat answered: “this is neither dream nor vision, but
a special disposition of The Supreme, whereby thou, O Seeker after
Wisdom, art granted experiences granted to no other man, as a reward
for thy well-endured pains, and as a means of perfecting thee for some
enormous purpose. And, to this end, I, whom thou hast known as a Sahu
and an Osirian, have a message for thee, O Wanderer through the Ages.
Doubt, then, no more: but take all things as the immortal gods are
pleased to send them, always going onward cheerfully from one step to
the next. For, know, that in Amentet, and in the Outer Immensities of
Immeasurable Space, where The Supreme is, there is no such limitation
as Time, nor any Impossibility to Him, or to Them His uncountable
forms.”
Thus he spoke; and again was silent. But I sat still, drinking the
beer of Osiris, letting the wisdom of his words take root in my lordly
mind. And anon I said: “This, then, indeed is the meeting of thy Theban
prediction. But tell me, O Amenemhat, though thou didst expect me, by
what means did these eyes of thine recognize me whom, formerly, thou
didst see at Thebes with other eyes?”
“I recognized thee, O Nicholas,” he said, “even at a distance, by thy
stride and by the self-assurance of thy gait of the straightened knees:
for no other man walketh as dost thou, as the owner and scorner of all
worlds old and new. But, also, I saw the shape of the orb of divination
in the folds of thy robe; and thou didst make the _Sign_ and shew the
staff of power.”
And so we fell into more intimate conversation; and I told him all
which had befallen me during my voyage down the river, of the slaying
of that Pyrrhos (the most righteous of men), of the blameless[32]
Ethiopian whose face I had spoiled, tearing also his hand (like a
dirty rag) in twain; and I spoke of my two trusty slaves, and of all
other matters which it was necessary for him to know. But, when I saw
that he was not minded to make revelations to me on the instant, then,
indeed, I determined to stay awhile with him, as a guest of the temple,
pursuing my studies in the magic arts among holy mages whose business
was none other, and waiting the pleasure of the blessed gods inhabiting
olympian palaces.
Thus, then, I found Amenemhat in his body as he lived.
But, during this month of waiting on the will of the gods (for it
was no more than that), a certain thing was done by me, at the
suggestion and with the aid of Amenemhat, which I will set down here
in its place. For, it being evident to both of us that my lot was to
move through time, getting wisdom by living many lives in various
circumstances, Amenemhat used to speak of the comfort which I should
derive from constant companions throughout my wanderings. But I,
knowing the sort of man which I am, and not by any means loving, used
to respond to him saying, that it was not the perpetual companionship
of an equal which would delight me, so much as the perpetual readiness
of comely and trustworthy and affectionate slaves, whose services
I could command at pleasure or neglect if I thought well so to do.
But Amenemhat, having perceived the alert intelligent faithful minds
and the pleasing and powerful bodies of Nesamun and Yokkho, inquired
whether such as these would suit me. To whom I answered, saying, that I
had them in my mind when thus speaking. Wherefore, Amenemhat suggested
that I should perform the two magics called _The Soul-Loosening_ and
_The Life-Binding_, whereby the silver cords which tied the said
Nesamun and Yokkho to their present forms might be loosed, so that (at
a moment’s notice) they might migrate to other forms of my invention,
and, also, that by binding their lives to my life, the said slaves
might accompany me into whatsoever other lives The Supreme might have
in store for me and them.
But I, when I had pondered the matter, found it very desirable indeed.
For which cause, having obtained the consent of the two, very gleefully
given when (without any concealment) I described the whole project to
them, for (beside being fearless and very eager for adventures) they
deemed me godlike, and desired nothing less than to be left behind
when I should go forward, then, having brought them to a sacred part
of the vast temple, where their screams would be inaudible, I and
Amenemhat did what was necessary on the bodies, first of little Yokkho,
and then of Nesamun, in such a dexterous manner that they suffered
not more pain than they could bear without swooning: but I shall not
describe the process on account of a religious reason. Nor could any
earth-walking man, mage or simple, find out any difference in them
afterward, unless (by chance) he should hap upon the tiny and almost
invisible silver-coloured puncture in the rosy breast-flower (but which
one it was of their breast-flowers I decline to indicate, for both
breast-flowers are punctured on both of them, yet only one puncture
on each of them is an exit), through which Nesamun and Yokkho became
able to leave their Egyptian bodies, and to follow me through time, as
easily as they could leave my barge by the deserted quay and follow me
through the streets of Tanis.
In this manner, I prepared myself and them for a new migration.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] Oh! Is it indeed? The statement (as it stands) is a little
startling though. A. H.
[32] This repeated use of these epithets “the most righteous of men,”
and “blameless” is, of course, obviously, an example of Greek irony. A.
H.
THE ELEVENTH PAPYRUS
But it was well that the thing was done when it was well-done. For, a
few months later, the occasion for departure occurred.
Now I had been very diligently studying such magic of the Tanitic
priests as I did not know, to fill up the interval until Amenemhat
should be moved by the blessed gods to deliver his message. And, among
other matters where improvement seemed desirable, it was put into my
mind to try a new method of imbalming the dear remains of the dead,
which method (I believed and believe) not only prevents the mummy
from shrivelling and going black or dry or discoloured in any way,
but also preserves the exact freshness of appearance and condition
which it had enjoyed while used as the temporary vesture of the soul,
excepting the condition of life. But, because I found it unwise to make
my experiments on the corpses of persons who had spoiled the pristine
beauty of their bodies by over-long or over-arduous usage, I and
Amenemhat preferred those of such acolyths of the temples whose souls
well-plumed Thoth had been directed to escort elsewhere without first
afflicting their forms with loathsome diseases. But, because all the
temples of Tanis supplied no more than two such corpses within the
month, Amenemhat sent both wind-messages and ibis-messages to other
temples of other cities stating our needs. And, when we had treated
without emptying eight well-made blooming bodies, with imperishable
quintessences of unmentionable virtue and inconceivable fragrance, then
we anointed them nine times in every part, under the nine proper stars,
using a liquid unguent, preservative, which perseveres through all time
and disgusts worms. But the fame of our handicraft went abroad, so that
all the hierarchies of Khem desired to have their dead acolyths mummied
in the new manner for the benefit of the temples. For which cause, it
happened that I went to Alexandria in my barge to inspect a corpse so
perfect that I brought it away with me, intending to treat it; and, on
my return, I became imbroiled in the streets of Tanis after this wise.
The priests attending Amenemhat had taken the beautiful body from my
barge and were gone on their way to the temple of Isis. But I remained
behind during a little while, inspecting the diligence of my slaves,
well-shaven, performing prescribed purifications. And anon, later in
the evening, I proceeded by quiet by-ways toward the temple where
Amenemhat awaited me. But, on my way, I encountered a troop of land
mercenaries, blameless Sithonians and Mygdonians, escorting the litter
of one of the Lagidai, a brother of the Pharoah’s favourite wife. And
they were rudely brushing everyone from their path, not being at all
affable. But by chance, a certain aged philosopher, Melkas by name,
who taught daily in the porch of the Serapion, was about to cross the
road. His eyes were dim, his step infirm, his pace tardy and grave.
Wherefore, I tried to help him into the shadow of a portico; and did
so, but not before a Sithonian, seeing the length of my arms, had
yelled at me, clipping the Argive tongue, “Ho, there, Ape-man, stand
aside before thy betters!”
But instantly divine anger inflamed my lordly mind. And boldly
affronting the mocker, I broke the crust of his blameless face to pulpy
fragments with fist-blows, as a bear in springtime breaks a delicate
egg. But the puny prince in the litter ordered his guards to seize me;
and half-a-dozen rash Mygdonians hastened with an obedient start to
obey. Then, indeed, the fierce and frolicsome joy of Saint Aldate’s
or the Cowley Empire on a Saturday night[33] came upon me, so that
I delayed not, but I simply smashed the first four faces using my
left fist and my right like flails or sledge-hammers; and, snatching
a falling shield and mightily sweeping with it, I shattered the shins
of the others as they came on. Now, when they saw these things, the
shrieking slaves fled, having dropped the litter. But I, by this time,
had got into my stride, becoming very methodical in my fury: for which
cause I determined to leave nothing important undone. Wherefore, I
butted the prince out of his tangled curtains, and rolled him about
with my feet in a pool of foul slime which happened to be near by. And,
all things necessary having been accomplished, I went upon my way with
a calm and holy mind. Nor did I bestow another thought to the matter.
And indeed no one gave me news of it: for the city, in those last days
of the Lagidaian dynasty, was a scene of incessant disorder; and a few
messes more or less, found in the streets at dawn, were by no means
uncommon. But, after four days, Amenemhat suddenly interrupted my
studies, crying: “Fly, O Nicholas, to the secret chamber in the shrine:
for the Pharoah’s mercenaries are upon thee.”
Thus he spoke. But I proceeded, without more ado, to the secret door;
and, when I stamped on the right, it slid ajar, so that I could squeeze
by, and sidle sideways along the narrow passage which led to the
secret chamber. Now this secret chamber was a very wily one; and it
was constructed after this manner: by the hollowing-out of one of the
pillars which surrounded the shrine, but the pillar itself was (like
all the others) carved into the similitude of an important god. And,
inside the hollow of it (from the secret crypt beneath the temple floor
in which I was), there ascended a very narrow ladder of twisted linen
threads leading up into the secret chamber in the skull of the god.
But, at the top of the ladder, there was contrived a small seat like a
saddle, so ordained that anyone sitting thereon in the skull, having
pulled up the ladder, was very much separated from earth-walking men;
and might (at will) speak through the orifice of the god’s mouth quite
safely, and also might see plainly all which happened in the temple,
looking downward. And the place was used in the following manner. For
the priests of the temple, being seated on the saddle and speaking
awfully through the mouth of the god, delivered themselves of oracles
imparted to them by the Divine Ones, or of revelations which they
obtained in their trances or by sacred magic on account of a religious
reason. Such, then, was the secret chamber.
But the lower part of the hollow pillar being dark, a studio of
spiders, a thoroughfare of mice, and an abode of most holy beetles, I
made haste to ascend to the saddle, pulling the ladder after me. And,
being there conveniently insconced, I perceived Amenemhat hurriedly
entering the temple by the priest’s door; and, having seated himself in
his proper pulpit, he instantly began to intone the litanies, beginning
in the middle so that an interrupter (I suppose) might imagine that he
had been thus occupied for some time. He, therefore shook the sacred
sistrum, saying:
“_Homage to thee, O lord of the star-gods in An and of heavenly beings
in Khez-aba, O thou god Unti more glorious than those gods hidden in
Annu:_
“_Homage to thee, O Heru, thou dweller in both horizons, who,
enormously striding, stridest over heaven, thou dweller in both
horizons:_
“_Homage to thee, O soul of everlastingness, O soul who dwellest in
Tattu, O Un-nefer son of Nut, thou lord of Akert:_
“_Homage to thee, in thy dominion over Tattu, the feathery crown is
stablished on thy head, thou art the one whose strength is in himself:_
“_Homage to thee, O lord of the acacia-tree, who settest the boat upon
its sledge, who turnest back the ill-working friend, who causest the
eye to rest:_
“_Homage to thee, mighty in thy moment, great god dwelling in An-rut-f,
lord of eternity, creator of everlastingness, lord of Sutenhenen:_
“_Homage to thee, who restest upon right and truth, O lord of Abtu
whose limbs are joined to Ta-sertet, to whom fraud and guile are
hateful:_
“_Homage to thee in thy boat, who bringest Hapi from his source, on
whose body light shineth, O dweller in Nek-hen:_
“_Homage to thee, O creator of the gods, O king of the north and of
the south, O Osiris, O victor, O lord and ruler of the world in thy
gracious seasons._”
And, having met with no interruption at the time when he finished these
beautiful imprecations, Amenemhat shook the sacred sistrum more loudly,
and went on with the _Address to the Rudders_, saying:
“_Hail, thou lovely power, thou lovely rudder of the northern heavens:_
“_Hail, thou pilot of the world, thou lovely rudder of the western
heavens:_
“_Hail, thou shining one who livest with the gods in visible forms,
thou lovely rudder of the eastern heavens:_
“_Hail, thou dweller in the temple of those with shiny faces, thou
lovely rudder of the southern heavens._”
And, because the expected intrusion of profane persons was still
delayed, when he had chaunted these strophes, Amenemhat shook the
sacred sistrum very slowly and very solemnly, and continued with the
_Invocation of the Triads_, thus:
“_Hail, ye gods who are above the earth, ye pilots of the netherworld:_
“_Hail, ye mother-gods, who are above the earth, and in the
netherworld, and in the house of Osiris:_
“_Hail, ye pilot-gods of Tasert, who are above the earth, and in the
netherworld, and with the followers of Ra in the train of Osiris_----”
But, when he had intoned these words, the quiet rattling of the sistrum
and the monotonous drone of his voice were drowned by the clanking of
arms, and by the blameless cries of mercenaries, appearing at the
cedar portal of the temple. Whom Amenemhat, reverend of mien and very
hierarchic, sternly confronted from his pulpit, saying: “Who dareth
thus to intrude upon the sacrosanct shrine of Mother Isis?”
But the answer came from one, whom I (from my secret station) perceived
to be an Argive of noble aspect, large of limb, and handsome, and very
gorgeously apparelled in golden mail with adornments of chrysoliths and
the plumage of yellow cock-parrots. He responded to Amenemhat, saying:
“I am called Agesilopodes, son of Golygosthenes, and I am a captain of
the Pharoah’s guard.”
“And what doth Agesilopodes, servant of the Pharoah, seek in these holy
precints?” Amenemhat continued.
“I seek the person of one Ape-man, whose trail we have pursued hither:”
the Khrysaspid affirmed.
“Thou seest,” said the priest indifferently, “how many persons are
present occupying our pews.”
“I see but thee:” quoth the captain: “but nevertheless I must search in
the shadows of all the most secret recesses.”
“The rule,” said Amenemhat, “is that the sons of Khem may have free
access to this oratory of our Lady of the Marshes, but not aliens,
undesirable or otherwise.”
“But the Ape-man whom I seek is guilty of sacrilege.”
“Even in that case, he would have secure sanctuary here, unless he be
pursued by the Pharoah’s own sigil.”
“Revere it:” said the captain, exhibiting his warrant.
Amenemhat had a prostration at the sight of the royal but tipsy
flute-player’s cartouche. But, having (by his wiles) caused the
mercenaries to persuade themselves that they were on a bootless quest,
he permitted the search to be made. Makedonians and Thrakians marched
slowly round the temple, casting fierce glances into every dark place:
but Amenemhat seated himself again in his pulpit, his knees closed and
his palms upon them, his head up and his eyes fixed, as a hierarch who
engages in holy meditation while expecting the imposition of his mitre.
But I devised a new and perfectly frightful wile. For, having taken
three wax-matches from my box, and having frayed out the half of each
match, wrapping the frayed part round the head loosely, as the men of
my future race were wont to do when they desired to kindle tobacco in
a gale of wind, then, indeed, I kindled them; and I dropped them, one
by one and horribly flaming, from the god’s mouth on to the plumed
casques of mercenaries who (by chance) were walking just below. And
their horse-hair crests instantly shrivelled with appalling stenches,
in flashes of fire which singed the soldiers’ hairy faces, terribly,
inexplicably: so that they fled, fearfully yelling, having a most
hideous tale, about gods who vomit fire, to narrate to their awful
comrades in their barracks.
In this manner, I dismissed well-greaved mercenaries (the most
righteous of men) from the temple of Isis at Tanis.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Written in English, in what I take to be Mr. Crabbe’s own hand.
“Saint Aldate’s” was, of course, a low catholic parish of Oxford, near
Pembroke and The House, and much frequented by monsignori and other
catholic converts, and I believe that no particular rashness can be
attributed to me for saying that there was also a slightly excessive
music hall, called (quaintly enough) the “Empire” in the “Cowley” Road,
Oxford. But I really feel quite unable to elucidate the allusion in
this connection. Saturday night is, of course, the eve of the day of
the sun; and perhaps we have here some cryptic allusion to sun-worship,
which (we know) was certainly of an hilarious and somewhat energetic
character. _Cf._ Frazer’s chapter on Osiris and the Sun: _Studies in
Oriental Religion_, vii. 287-294. A. H.
THE TWELFTH PAPYRUS
But, when the place was clear, then, indeed, I waited where I was, till
Amenemhat should leave his pulpit, giving me a signal to descend and
join him. For he directed my actions at this juncture; and it seemed
to me that he, being at liberty, understood what to do for my security
better than I in my cell. But, after I had waited an hour, stiffness
invaded my members and tedium my noble mind. Wherefore, seeing that the
temple was deserted, and that Amenemhat still remained motionless in
meditation, I came down from the secret chamber, retracing my steps,
and entering the shrine by the priests’ door. But, having approached my
friend, addressing him softly by name, I perceived that he was indeed
rapt in an ecstasy, and (no doubt) receiving a peculiar revelation from
some god. At whose pulpit I stood, watching intensely, having no more
fear.
And anon he came out of his trance, with the usual eye-rollings and
shiverings and deep sighings for the long-unused breath. But, when his
returning gaze lit on me, he began to sob very quietly in the manner
of a man, shedding no tears; and that is the most horrible of all
things to see. But I was aware, from these tokens, that he had had a
revelation concerning me and portending a parting. For which cause I
treated him tenderly, saying nothing.
And, at length, he descended from his pulpit; and, having led me a
long way into the innermost recesses of the temple, into a large hall
which I never yet had seen, wherein were numerous unheard-of matters,
then, he began to speak. But his words were unwinged; and thus he
said: “O Nicholas, the hour of thy departure is at hand. For, since
the Pharoah’s mercenaries have invaded this sacred place, it will be
insecure for thee as also for us. For there will be a blameless guard
continually about our walls; and, though thou mayst leave once by the
secret postern, thou couldst not do so more than once; and it is not in
thy nature to brook confinement. Also, as long as the guards remain,
the shrine of the goddess will be deserted and her gifts wasted for
lack of receivers. Wherefore thou needs must go. But, before thou
goest, know that the well-feathered shiny gods have deigned to give
me an order concerning thee and to send thee a message by my mouth,
whereby thy mind may be enlightened about mysteries of the past and a
foresight of thy future revealed to thee.”
But I, hearing this, perceived that very fine solemnities were on hand.
Wherefore I listened attentively.
And Amenemhat continued his discourse, saying: “Thou knowest, O
Wanderer, who thou art and whence thou camest: but thou knowest not
who thou hast been, nor who thou shalt be. But these are the matters
on which I am to give thee information. For thou, Nicholas the Third,
called the Crab, who art come from the kingdom of Victory queen of
the stalwart stately Anglicans, knowest no more of thine ancestors
than the names of Nicholas the First who was father of Robert who was
father of William who was father of Nicholas the Second who was father
of thy gentle father James. Nevertheless, thou (having been brought
backward through the rolling wheels of time) shalt know that it is
the inscrutable will of the blessed gods to make thee aware of him
who was thy primal sire. And he is none other than Laertes, lord of
rocky Ithaka, whose wife Antikleja was the daughter of Aytolikos, whom
wing-footed Hermes the Luck-bringer begat.”
But I began to understand all sorts of riddles, and many mysteries
indeed were being solved. But the priest was uttering his rede with
the tones of one inspired; and I eagerly lent him both my ears.
And Amenemhat pursued his revelation, saying: “Furthermore, O Wily
One, thou art to know this. For, seeing that the much-enduring
much-contriving son of King Laertes, having wandered far by sea and
land during the ten years following after the siege of windy Ilion, set
out once again on another wandering (but wherefore I do not know); and
was slain here, at the mouth of sacred Sihor, by young Telegonos, his
own son and Kirke’s (that awful goddess), ignorant of whom he slew,
now, therefore, it is the will of those divine ones who have never
lost their faces that thou, Nicholas called the Crab, shouldst pursue
thy quest for wisdom reincarnate in thine original person as King
Odysseys, undertaking a third wandering, the course of which is not yet
known to me: but it will be known by me, and revealed by me to thee, in
the moment when thou farest forth. For the thing is yet on the knees of
the gods.”
But, when Amenemhat had said all this, the Anglican portion of me
suggested the placing of some term to such seemingly nonsensical
ravings. For which cause, I said, as stolidly as possible: “When shall
I, Nicholas called the Crab, find myself reincarnate as King Odysseys
for the purpose named?”
And the priest solemnly answered, saying: “Thou art Odysseys, even now.”
To whom I said: “I require proof of the truth of thy word.”
But Amenemhat drew back a veil which was concealing a picture painted
on the wall. And he said: “See here, now, O Wily One, for this is a
copy of that portrait of Odysseys Laertiades which is in the temple of
Herakles at Naykratis, a precious possession. Art thou like it, or does
it resemble thee, O thou from whom it was painted?”
And certainly the piece did exactly resemble me, with my long arms and
legs and my silver hair and my well-sunned skin and the shy fierce
ruthlessness of my visage. But I was not overanxious to begin another
life at that moment; and, for this cause, I would not be convinced: but
I believed that the priest was deceiving me with a portrait painted
from myself secretly, for I had never seen the portrait at Naykratis.
But seeing myself likely to be brought to a full stop in the matter, I
determined to use my magic art as a means of arriving at the truth.
And, casting a severe glance at Amenemhat, I withdrew my attention from
him as one unworthy. But he waited, calmly, placidly, saying nothing.
But I took from my robe my orb of divination, of rock-crystal banded
with silver with adornments of blue moonstones; and, having placed it
properly, I peered into its illimitable profundity. And all within
was blank and void. But I made an act of will, willing to see the
Naykratian portrait as it was. And instantly it filled the crystal
void. And, having compared it with the picture on the wall, I was aware
that they were alike in every particular. But I gazed again into the
crystal, making another act of will, willing to see Odysseys Laertiades
in his habit as he lived. And instantly I saw him there. And, having
compared him with the picture on the wall, I was aware that it was as
like to him in every particular as it was like to me.
But I returned the crystal to its place, and drew forth my magic staff,
signing the priest with it, and reciting the _Spell_ called _Compelling
Truth_. And I inquired of him, saying: “Who am I?”
And he answered me: “Odysseys Laertiades.”
But I inquired of him again, saying: “Who have I been?”
And he answered me: “Nicholas, called the Crab.”
But I inquired of him yet again, saying: “Who shall I be?”
And he answered me: “After many lives thou shalt be once more Nicholas,
called the Crab.”
Wherefore I knew that these things were somehow so. And I gave him
leave to continue. He, then, said: “O Very Wily One, proofs thou
desirest; and proofs thou shalt have, of a sort. Dost thou remember thy
bow, the black bow of Eyrytos, which none can bend save thyself or a
god? And dost thou remember thy sword, the sword of Eyryalos? I ask,
for reasons. For, after thy death near Sihormouth, thy weapons were
placed on the breast of thy corpse to go with thee to the netherworld;
and, when thy funeral-pyre was lighted, the flames leaped up, and
blazed, and died to embers: but thy deathless soul was departed (where,
I know not, nor dost thou definitely); and there were no ashes of thy
body: which things are a mystery all. But thine arms and thy bow and
thine armour, having been forged by a god, could not perish. And, now,
thou art here; and they too rest here in the secret treasury, waiting
for thee to assume them again, O much-contriving King Odysseys, Sacker
of Cities.”
But, indeed, if any mind-perplexing doubt had remained to me, this
would have sufficed to dismiss it. For I was aware that the prediction
of my slave, Yokkho, when he said: _The silver god, in the temple,
taking the bow which sings_, was about to be fulfilled. And I arose,
following Amenemhat with a joyful mind.
But he led me into a yet larger hall, having row upon row of ungraven
columns. And everywhere there were vast heaps of gold and silver
ingots well-builded, with vases and cups and tripods of gold and
silver and Korinthic bronze, which is platinum,[34] and sheaves of
ivory-handed spears with adornments gold and chrysoprase, armour and
shields of gold, elephants’ tusks of monstrous dimensions, fillets of
gems, and ropes of pearls. But we passed through, into a smaller hall
of a circular shape, having an altar in the centre, whereon lay an
enormous shield of silver, carved with various devices and set with
crabs and moons in very pure nonagonal prismatic rock-crystals with
balls of rock-crystal and blue moonstone. There, also, was a mighty
helmet of the same, plumed with the lofty-waving prides of nine white
peacocks. There, also, was a short sword, in a silver scabbard inlaid
with similar rock-crystals and blue moonstones. There, also, was a vast
black bow of a totally unheard-of material, with a quiver decorated
like the scabbard and full of fear-inspiring arrows. There, also,
on the altar-steps, were greaves of silver gloriously carven, with
adornments of rock-crystals and blue moonstones, and a breast-plate
with the back-plate and shoulder-pieces of the same so bespattered with
moony gems that they resembled gigantic dewdrops on a frosty field seen
in the clear of the full moon. And, also, a large bundle wrapped in
white buckskin was lying at the foot of the altar.
And, when I had looked upon these things, Amenemhat thus addressed me,
saying: “These are thy god-forged silver armour and thy god-carven bow
and sword, O Odysseys. Take then thy bow and make a trial.”
But, when I took the great bow in my hand, it quivered and thrilled,
singing a marvellous mystic melody; and thus it sang:
“_Hail King Odysseys,
long hast thou left me,
long have I lain here
waiting in silence:
wars loom before us:
blood will pour over us:
death flieth with us:
take me, O Master,
and slay as of yore._”
But, having drawn a well-winged arrow from the quiver, I passed again
into the great hall of the secret treasury; and Amenemhat followed
me, holding aloft his lanthorn; and rays of light from it flamed upon
a shield of burnished gold at the far end of the hall. But, though
never (to my remembrance) had I handled a bow since I, a little eager
scolded and mocked-at child, played my own solitary fantastic games
in the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans,
nevertheless I bended and strang the huge black bow of Eyrytos with the
skilful ease of an expert. And the back-bent bow throbbed in my hand as
though it were alive, itself taking aim at the shield-navel. And the
shaft sped forth, shrieking and humming in the air, till it buried its
length in the boss of the burnished shield. And, having done what no
man but one man can do, I doubted no long but that I actually was King
Odysseys, the Wily One, Sacker of Cities, the Wanderer, the grandson of
Divine Wing-footed Hermes.
Amenemhat said: “Verily, thou art the lord of rocky Ithaka.”
And to him I answered, saying: “Yea: that I am.”
But, returning to the inner treasury, I stripped myself all stark, and
put on the god-forged armour of yellow-haired great-hearted Akhilleys,
which, formerly, my agile feet had won from Aias son of Telamon,
arming myself with the glittering silver.[35] First, indeed, I put
on the beautiful greaves round my legs, well-fitting to the clasps.
Next, I covered my body with the white leathern kirtle having taslets
of carven silver about my loins, which Ares himself had worn. But I
clothed myself over it with a kirtle of silver mail. Next, I placed on
my breast and back and shoulders the corslet of swift-footed Akhilleys,
wrought by Hephaistos himself at the behest of Thetis of the sea; and
the silver-shining of it went to a great distance, as of the moon. And
I hanged from my shoulders the silver-sheathed sword, gleaming with
moony gems, and also the well-carven quiver of arrows. And, on my head,
I set the well-made helmet, crested with the lofty-waving prides of
nine white peacocks; and dreadfully the plumage nodded from above. And
I took, beside, the bow which sings, well-fitted to my hand, and then
the huge and sturdy shield, whereon Hephaistos had wrought, in silver
and rock-crystals and blue moonstones, earth, and heaven, and sea,
and the unwearied sun, and the full moon, and all the constellations
crowning heaven, the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the strength of Orion,
and the Bear or the Wain which there revolves watching Orion, but it
alone descends not into the baths of the ocean. But Amenemhat shod my
feet with sandals of white leather, buckled with silver studded with
moony gems. And he covered me with a great trailing mantle, of silver
tissue lined with white fur, having a huge silver clasp of the crab
and the moon. And the sheen of me reached to heaven; and all the earth
around smiled in the splendour of the silver; and a sound like the
trampling of men’s feet arose. But I stood in the midst, gnashing my
teeth; and my eyes shone like a blaze of white fire.
These things having been duly accomplished, Amenemhat left me while he
went about my business: for, indeed, the occasion was one for operating
very mighty and singular magic, whereby I, King Odysseys, might be
sent on my new quest suitably attended and in kingly fashion, and not
without my gear. But, when it was night, the priest returned to me
contriving wiles; and he said that all things were ready. For he had
prepared for me one of the temple-galleys, a stout ship builded in
the yards of Alexandria, pierced for forty oars, twenty a side in a
single old-fashioned bank. And he had manned the galley with rowers and
slaves, whom he gave to me as a sweet guest-gift: but one Deythes was
the master-mariner. And the galley rode at anchor in mid-stream, ready
to sail.
But, at midnight, having gathered all my goods which were in
the temple, and having rubbed my necklace of bloodstones with
marigold-juice so that I became invisible, I went down with Amenemhat
to my barge by the desolate quay; and I shewed myself without warning
in my brilliant panoply to Nesamun and Yokkho. And, when they had
finished their adorations (for they naturally adored the silver god),
then, indeed, I and Amenemhat did the magic which we had prepared,
giving to my two slaves new forms with new names, whereby Nesamun came
out of his Egyptian body, becoming Neandros, an Argive, and squire to
me, and Yokkho came in turn out of his Egyptian body, becoming Thalos,
an Argive also, and foot-boy to me. And the magic was done perfectly,
nor was there any unusual noise.
But, when we had bestowed the evacuated Egyptian bodies upon the
inchanted sons of slime, the mind in my dear breast was perplexing me
concerning two further matters. For, I knew not what worthy gift I
could give to Amenemhat as a parting blessing; and, also, I was aware
that I desired to have something more in my slaves than that which
they already possessed, to wit, their ingenious minds, faithful and
fearless, which the gods of their stars had bestowed upon them, and the
comely Argive forms wherewith I myself by my magic art had endowed
them. But then, indeed, suddenly, a very singular and unheard-of
thought illumined my noble mind, which bade me to use a most potent
magic inchantment of another age (and I never had used it before,
though I was fully competent in the circumstances), performing a sacred
lavation, pouring a handful of Nile-water upon Amenemhat, and upon
Neandros, and upon Thalos, saying over each in turn the _Spell of the
Three Who are One_. Thus, then, I did. And the faces of the priest
and of the slaves whitened, becoming strangely purified and thankful,
unknowing. But I know all.
And, now that the time was come when I must part from Amenemhat, we
two drew away to a darker corner of the desolate quay. But the haughty
wise eyes of the priest were full of unshed tears; and he spoke in the
secret tongue of the priests of Khem, saying: “Never, O Odysseys, shall
we meet again, neither in this life nor in another, till the cycles of
our opportunities shall be fulfilled. But to thee I give the galley
and her crew, slaves; and I have placed a certain treasure in the hold
for thy use and comfort. Take them, O friend, as a sweet guest-gift.
And, so, fare thee well, O King Odysseys, whom may all gods of sea and
land and air and sky have in prime and perpetual favour. And this is
the message which I have in charge to give thee at parting: _From the
Depths of the Dead thou shalt win back the Treasure of Hades_.”
Thus he spoke; and, having embraced me, he went his own way.
But I ascended my barge; and, when Neandros and Thalos had rowed me to
my galley, I mounted the lofty poop, to see my goods brought aboard,
and the empty barge sent adrift, for it was no longer useful to me. But
I gave commands to Deythes, my shipman, that he should shape a course
for Sihormouth and, so, out to the open sea.
Thus I did, leaving the land of Khem, and beginning a new quest.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] This is rather worrying. Everyone knows that, before the reign
of David, there was in Asia a plenty of a third precious and perfect
metal: that Tyrians and Phoinikians founded and worked it till the
reign of Salomon: that there were rich deposits of it in the Atlantis,
where it was excavated, founded, and worked: that it was heavier and
more valuable than either gold or silver: that it had most of the
qualities of gold, but was something of the colour of silver: that it
was capable of high polish, the Romans using it for lamp-reflectors:
that the Hebrews called it _Khasmal_ = White Metal, and the Greeks
called it _Elektron_ or _Khalkolibanon_, or _Orikhalkon_: that it
became rare through barbarian incursion and the submergence of the
Atlantis: that it was imitated by a mixture of gold and silver by the
Korinthians, the native metal (which they originally manipulated)
being practically lost. Strabo (III.) and Pliny (Proem. xxxiii.) say
that there was enough of this metal found in the sands of the Po in
Trajan’s time to form a statue of Augustus. Many other writers preserve
its memory, _e.g._ Saint Ezekhiel Prophet, i. 4, 7: Homer, _Od._ IIII.
71, XV. 458: Vergil, _Georg._ III. 521: _Æn._ VIII. 402, V. 624:
Martial, VIII. 50: Sil. It., I. 229: Stat. _Thebaid_: Juv. _Sat._
xiiii. Serenus Samm. _De Uenenis_: Serv. _Georg._: Lamprid. _Heliog._
_Cf._ also Aristophanes’ _Knights_, and Sophokles’ praise of the White
Metal (ἐλέκτρον) of Sardis with gold of India. But, even now I see no
particular connection (excepting in Mr. Crabbe’s mind) between modern
platinum (which only exists, I am told, in the other hemisphere), and
the undeniable White Metal (which the ancients called Elektron or
Korinthic Bronze) which disappeared, I conceive, in the earthquake
ingulphing the lost Atlantis. The problem is a sadly distracting one.
A. H.
[35] Hitherto we have been led to believe that Akhilleys’ armour was
golden, not silvern as here emphatically stated. Perhaps our error
is due to the lamentable fact that all our classical texts have been
edited by tasteless and not highly scrupulous Dutchmen, so far. I just
throw out the suggestion. A. H.
THE THIRTEENTH PAPYRUS
When white Dawn was come, I left the small Pharos behind. Sihor had
become brackish; and a favourable breeze drove us out on to the
unvintaged sea. My galley was indeed meet for a king: for all her
fitments were of cedar inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl. Her
food-service also was of well-chased ephesian silver; and her sail
and her awnings were of thick white silk with vermilion bordures and
fringes. Furthermore, my master-mariner, Deythes son of Kimon of Naxos,
was an honest man, an islander, as well as a mariner of much favour
with the Divine Ones who inhabit olympian palaces; and he had never
lost a ship. Wherefore, being aware that my equipage was quite worthy
of me and of my destiny, I was glad.
But, when I came to ponder Amenemhat’s last prediction, I could not
understand it; and it behoved me to understand it very speedily, in
order that I might contrive new wiles and suitable: for, at the moment,
I was sailing the open sea without a notion as to my destination.
For which cause, I tried my crystal orb of divination: but I saw
nothing therein. But, having next refreshed my memory concerning the
things which Thalos (who had been Yokkho) saw in the palm-mirror,
I read in my note-book these words: _The silver god, in the ship,
speaking with the azure-haired god on the white horses._ And that I
might know more about this azure-haired god on the white horses, of
whom the innocent eager slave had spoken, I performed the rite of the
palm-mirror a second time, having summoned clear-eyed Thalos to me. But
he saw nothing in the ink, though he gazed into it and sweated till he
swooned from sheer exhaustion. But I was aware, having restored him and
having given him to be treated tenderly, that a far greater magic was
necessary to explain his utterance and the utterance of Amenemhat, to
wit: _The silver god, in the ship, speaking to the azure-haired god, on
the white horses, and From the Depths of the Dead thou shalt win back
the Treasure of Hades._ And, when the mother of Dawn, rosy-fingered
Morning, was about to come again, bringing light to mortals and
immortals, then my galley was alone upon the bluish-grey-green sea.
But I was resolved to try the _Rite of Thalattomancy_, which is most
efficacious; and it may only be performed by a master and prince of the
highest degree and most secret initiation and by a sacred ruler of the
innermost light. To which end, I caused Nile-water and other proper
apparatus to be placed on the lofty poop; and I made a proclamation to
my crew, lest curiosity should overcome fear and obedience, that death
in shreds (lasting some hours) would be the lot of an interruptor of
my solitude in the sight of all. And, having bathed and arrayed myself
in my silver panoply, I opened the rite.
Within the square of four pentagons, I drew the four concentric
circles with white chalk on the lofty poop-deck, filling them with the
proper names. Within these, I drew also the double circle for ebb and
flow. And, within the last, I placed a dish of offerings to the seven
sea-gods and the silver divination-cup brimming with Nile-water. But
I stood between them, wearing the symbols of the Crab and the Moon:
for the Crab is a watery sign, and the Moon is the Governess of the
Sea. And, having called on the gods of the sea and the moon to be
propitious, I burned aloes in a brazier, and I chanted the _Spell_
which releases the souls of the drowned from their torments in the
netherworld, providing the forms of birds for clothing them, and
treating them to a taste of fresh air, so that (with their wings) they
might veil the apparition of a favouring sea-god, an aboundingly holy
awful sight not to be viewed excepting by initiates, as it is written:
_It is not necessary for the novice to believe anything, but only to
sacrifice his little pig._
But the cries of my birds, rejoicing in freedom for an hour, came
nearer and nearer; and they circled round me closely and more closely,
till I seemed to be enclosed in a pillar like a cylinder of whirling
wings. And, at the moment of sunrise, the spirits of the moon came
knocking at the gates of the waves to summon the divine ones of
the sea. But those spirits were of a great and full body, soft and
phlegmatic, of colour like a cloud, black, morbid, obscure, having
swelling countenances and aspects ready to melt away like an exceeding
great rain about the circles. And their particular shapes were a king
like an archer riding on a doe, and a little boy, and a woman-hunter
with a bow and arrows, and a cow, and a little doe, and a vermilion and
silver garment, and many white horses having finny feet.
Then, I seized the cup of divination by both handles, crying aloud the
magic _Spell_, and saying:
“_Let him come in the boat. And the name of the boat is Assembler of
Souls._
“_Let him come with the oars. And the name of the oars is Making The
Hair To Stand On End._
“_Let him come from the hold. And the name of the hold is Good._
“_Let him come by the rudder. And the name of the rudder is Making
Straight For The Middle._
“_Let him come with the mariners. And the name of the mariners is The
Divine Ones Who Have Found Their Faces._
“_Let the master-mariner come. And the name of the master-mariner is
The Divine One Who Has Never Lost His Face._”
And I held out the cup of divination over the sea, flinging the
water of sacred Sihor in a hemicycle of crystal drops as far as I
could reach. But the cloud of birds moved away with it; and hovered
above a billow with an agitated crest, which they surrounded with
innumerably-feathered pinions. Whereby I was aware that a godlike form
was manifesting himself in that direction. And, the dawn being fully
come, I recited the _Invitation to the gods of the sea_, using the
tongue of the gods.
Then, the answer arrived, very thin and clear, like a cock-crow
far away in the stillness of a desert-night, saying: _Receive the
azure-haired Earth-shaker from the sea_.
And the breeze instantly moaned and died; and the waves ceased from
lapping against my galley. And my sea-birds made a great confusion
in the awful calm, filling it with flashing pinions and plaintive
whimperings, and settling into the shape of a dome all formed of
beating wings, in which I on my ship and the tridentiferous god of the
sea were enclosed, face to face.
The floor of the temple of this blessed vision was the marbled water
of the rushing sea, frozen mute and motionless with awe. Throned
upon white horses ramping along a curling-crested billow, was the
form of wide-ruling sea-stilling earth-shaking Poseidon, king of the
ocean, with his court of white-bodied nymphs of the sea attended by
scaly tritons. And King Poseidon said: “Much is permitted to thee, O
god-beloved Odysseys. For even I, forgetful of our ancient feud, am
here to warn thee that severe ordeals of thine endurance are ordained.
And my rede to thee is that thou speed to Delphi, there to have sure
news of thy quest from the priestess of the Radiant Pure One: for we of
the sea are ignorant of what may be intended.”
Thus he spoke; and forthwith the vision dived in deep waters, splashing
awfully in disappearing. But I was left alone upon the lofty poop.
Wherefore, having summoned Deythes, my shipman, I gave him his course;
and, afterward, I rested, for magic is much more wearisome than war.
In this manner, I learned that the sea-gods at least were propitious
to me, and (also) that I was to go to the shrine of Phoibos Apollon at
Delphi, there to receive an oracle and a Pythian revelation.
But, when we had passed Patrai and were making Kirrha (which was the
port of Delphi on the Korinthic Gulph), it seemed good to me to prepare
a gift, meet to be given by me, a priest and a king, to the domestic
prelate of Pythian Phoibos Apollon. For which cause, I took stock of
the treasure wherewith Amenemhat had loaded my galley. And indeed it
was a generous and a godlike treasure. For there were wedges of virgin
gold, weighty, plastic, red as the hair of a lovely girl of Altino of
the Heneti, with great cut gems in leathern sacks, and vases and lamps
of Korinthic bronze (which is platinum)[36] wrought about with foliage,
and tripods of burnished gold fit to stand with those which limping
Hephaistos made for himself, and chryselephantine images of gods the
work of Pheidias and Praxiteles and Lysippos, and bales of tissues
of silver and gold and vermilion, with other treasures innumerable.
Moreover, there was a gigantic chariot all of silver, inlaid with crabs
and moons in mother-of-pearl; and the spokes of its wheels were images
of the heroes, mighty men of old, wine-companions and sword-friends
of me when we beleaguered woman-mad Paris and his Phrygians before
the walls of windy Ilion. And, poised upon the front of the rail of
the silver-shining chariot, there was a silver image of Love, larger
than life, blindfolded, naked, most alluringly proportioned, and his
well-winged arms were spread abroad in the very act of taking flight.
And there were four white horses, a well-matched team, to go before the
chariot for the sake of custom: but their harness and caparisons were
of white leather with adornments of silver.
Thus, then, I prepared myself for pursuing my quest on land.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] I sadly fear that we must be content to take Mr. C.’s word for
it. All the same, one can’t help feeling a little exasperated at his
reiterated emphasis of his statement, and at one’s own utter ignorance
of his real reason for being so insistent on a point which one is
perfectly unable to dispute or even to discuss. A. H.
THE FOURTEENTH PAPYRUS
But, when we reached Kirrha, having harboured my galley suitably, I
went on to Delphi with Neandros and Thalos and nine trusty-looking
slaves, who carried a part of my treasure. But we were all disguised
in sordid garments; and the treasure was concealed in filthy wallets:
for I was prepared with a wile. For, indeed, I was willing enough, and
even glad to offer gifts propitiatory to the Far-Darter, lest he still
should cherish his ancient rancour against me: for time is of small
account to the gods, but hatred may be an open fester for ever. But,
nevertheless, I (being myself a priest) did not intend to be skinned by
priests of the Lord (of the Silver Bow), nor was I ready to let them
suck me dry, as a fly is sucked by assiduous spiders. For the good
shepherd only shears his sheep, leaving the skinning of them to the
butcher.
Thus, then, I came to the fane in the laurel-grove; and I counted the
glittering shields there while waiting for my turn: for there were many
suppliants that day, seeking an oracle, and giving gifts of red gold.
And, anon, the warden of the treasury, the most righteous of men with
the pleated regard of a not-very-gracious pig, bade me to advance
and make my offering. But I grieved that men, of evil mind and
turpilucricupidous, should have twisted the good mind of the gods to
suit their own improper ends: for, whereas, of old, a suppliant’s gift
was made as a willing thank-offering after the Pythian nun had repeated
the words of the god, now, indeed, the treasurer would have appraised
my gift, before admitting me even to the narthex of the shrine where
men may await the divine oracle. Wherefore, avoiding undue display of
my actual condition, and (in fact) wilily simulating poverty, I began
by making reluctant offering of a tiny golden ingot. But the blameless
treasurer had a motion which made his mitre slip down to one ear of
his, discovering a corner of old skull red as a rotten bite of meat and
giving his aspect something of dancing and elastic: also, he snorted
very contemptuously, like a camel of sneering nostrils; and (seeing
me to be clad in an old cloak and wearing no well-crested helmet but
a shabby floppy hat such as my wing-footed grandsire Hermes loves to
wear), he had a flapping of his fattish fingers, and cried out upon me,
and would have sent me away. But I doled out gold in morsels; and, as a
Kretan, selling embroideries or incised stones to some blubber-lipped
carroty-headed chin-less alien who screams with spasms of fury, lies
in wait to see what the fool will offer, so did I with the warden of
the treasury, offering a little at a time, moaning prodigiously, till I
wearied him of bargaining and gained permission to pass in.
And, at length, I stood before the hollow shrine, and I prayed to the
son of Queen Titania that he would be propitious and easy of memory
concerning certain former regrettable occurrences. And all was still.
The bards sat hard on their stools, anointed ones, ignoble, stinking,
and perfectly contented, in an odious fraternity of dalmatics,
listless, till such time when the shrieks of the Pythia should spinge
them into vibration with verses.
Above the bards, the hierarch of Phoibos Apollon, occupied a throne as
archbishop, laurel-crowned, venerably filletted.
And, anon, the holy Pythian nun, standing on the fumy grating with her
python coiled about her feet, ecstatic amid clouds of frankincense,
shrieked, and moaned, and shrieked again; and her eyes glared, being
fixed wide open.
The blameless bards sprang forth from their drowsing; and put on the
allure of very intelligent men. The archbishop advanced an attentive
ear of the rose of rotten flesh. And the inspired virgin chanted, in
the Delian mode, with bell-like notes and simple cadences, delivering
the oracle which the fair-haired god was whispering to her mind. But
she sang in the language of the gods, intelligible only to masters
alone among articulately-speaking men.
Thus, then, she sang; and the bards were dazed; and the filletted
archbishop marvelled vastly: for very rarely does the Pythia use the
secret tongue in her phrenzies.
Thus, then, she sang, as her ecstasy intensified, floating her up from
the grating all rigid, as she stood on the willing air tenderly lifting
her up on high. For far-darting Phoibos Apollon himself was uttering
unwinged words through the mouth of his nun.
And thus she sang:
_Time-straying Wanderer, sea-borne Sea-lover,
signed with the Crab and starred with the Moon,
priest of all crafts of god-lore and man-lore,
head corner-stone by base builders rejected,
castaway paladin, master of mysteries,
known in the future, renowned in the past,
now, in the present, thy quest thou pursuest,
god-confirmed, seeking the crown of thy wisdom.
I smell, in the south, the odour of aloes
and basil and thyme and verbena and rosemary:
I see the black portal of Tainaron yawning:
I hear the fierce howls of the three-headed hound of hell.
Where thou hast been, go again, very warily:
heroes shall compass thee, ghosts of the great
shall acclaim, and the high gods environ, thee.
There is the golden crown of all wisdom:
there, in dark Hades, accomplish thy questing,
spoiling the god of the world of the dead._
Such was the Oracle of Delphic Phoibos Apollon.
But, when the Pythian nun swooned, having made an end of her singing,
the blameless archbishop gushed hurriedly down from his throne, very
ardent, very violent, the crupper under his dalmatic waggling with
furies no longer to be concealed: for he knew the secret tongue; and
he perceived that I must be a personage of superior quality, though
assuredly he did not understand the full import of the message, which
(indeed) could be known solely to the divine Bow-bearer and to me, the
bearer of the singing bow. But, because (being a priest, and one of
the most righteous of men) he hankered after the society of a person
so openly favoured by the god, he approached me, bent upon inquiries.
And he made me the _Sign of the Master-Architect_: but I responded
with the _Grip of the Ruler of Nine_. And he signed me with the Word
of the Knight of the Crab: but I countersigned him with the _Word of
the Prince of the Moon_. We embraced in the _Ways of the East and of
the West_. Together we formed the _Symbols of the Peacock_ and of _the
Ravens both Black and White_. But, when he shewed himself to be a
_Master of the White Stars_, I, in my turn gave him my token as _Lord
of the Ultra-Violet Radiance_, further than which no mortal man can
go in this direction. And I beckoned him to slink back to his throne:
which he did, very sorrowful in his heart, and champing his ancient
gums while borborygms of his belly went and came.
In this manner, I triumphed at the temple of Delphi, obtaining the
favour of the god.
THE FIFTEENTH PAPYRUS
But, having returned to Kirrha, I went up into the curved ship, and
I sailed propitiously southward for Tainaron, dark, forbidding to
strangers. And, while I was voyaging, I pondered the words of the
oracle.
But, as I thought of these things, many remembrances crept out of my
mind, crowding upon me: for, when I was a liegeman of Victory queen
of the stalwart stately Anglicans, and also when I was a priest of
Queen Isis in the land of Khem, I had been oblivious of many great and
wily deeds which I had done in the morning of the world. But, now,
I began to remember many things concerning lofty Ilion, and wars,
and windy Fate, and my sometime comrades there; and the black bow of
Eyrytos vibrated in my hand, and my glance fixed itself on the dazzling
sheen of my huge silver shield; and the bow sang to me of implacable
young yellow-haired Akhilleys, and faithful temerarious Patrokles his
friend, and fearless ruddy-headed Neoptolemos his son, and magnanimous
Agamemnon shepherd of the people and leader of the Argive hosts, and
aged Phoinix who (when a boy) obeyed his mother, and proud insane
Aias, and Aitolian Diomedes of the loud war-cry with whom I spied on
the Dardanians and stole the horses of Rhesos king of the Thrakians,
and Idomeneys the Kretan fierce as flame, and my own dear son wise
Telemakhos, and, also, the blameless foes of the rolling-eyed Argives,
to wit, pious runaway Aineias and accursed crest-tossing Hektor, and
old Priam with his sons Lykaon and Kebriones and godlike Polydoros the
runner, all blameless, and woman-mad Paris of the splendid body, and
also equal-handed Asteropaios: nor was I unmindful of bandy-legged
woolly-haired Thersites, the very ugliest man of all who came to Ilion.
And, furthermore, my singing bow began to sing to me, and it sang
of the white-armed slave Lyrnessian Briseis, and of the inquisitive
Deidamia, and of perfidious Klytaimnestra wife of Agamemnon, and of
unhappy Andromakhe, and of prudent Penelope, and of beautiful golden
Helen daughter of Zeys the Swan.
But the mind in my lordly breast busied itself with causes and effects:
for I began to understand many more things, and one thing specially
above all things, this, to wit, that these heroes (my friends and
enemies) strove as I strove, and endured as I endured, and contrived
their plans as I contrived my very wily plans, all for a prize and a
crown. And, further, it seemed to me that, in all my striving after
wisdom, there was one branch of knowledge which I had not considered
even rudimentarily: for, as far as I remembered, I had never permitted
myself (as all other heroes permit themselves) to go stark mad for
love of a woman. But that was chiefly due to my nature, which caused
me to hide my soft and hungry heart beneath a hard and cruel armour of
proof. Yet other men, not less brave (though far less wily) than I,
loved women, not coolly, as I had loved prudent Penelope (whom I always
used most respectfully and kindly), but perfervidly and even hairily
and with utter self-renunciation. And I began to wonder why my wisdom
had omitted to take count of rather more than half the human race.
And I began to wonder whether my comrades had gained certain rewards
of wisdom by their madness which I, by my wily self-control had not
attained. For I suddenly remembered the old adage, _What I gained, I
lost: What I lost, I won: What I gave, I have._
Now I blamed divine Memory: for she was treating me in a scurvy and
niggardly manner, doling out mere handfuls of all the wealth of notions
and ideas which, from time to time, I had been used to store in her
cells. For the wise man ought not to utter a judgment until he knows
all the matter to be judged. And I did not know all. Wherefore I put
myself to ponder the little which I knew.
And, one by one, slowly, and painfully, certain other matters were
brought out and laid before my mind.
For I remembered that the oldest and the youngest and the most
venerated and by far the most exceedingly powerful of all the gods
is Love. And, also, I remembered that each one of us, who stamp on
the wide-bosomed earth, is no more than a moiety and counterpart of a
perfect human creature. For, very early in the morning of the world,
Zeys Pampator cut all mortals in two, halving them, for a religious
reason, and on account of their ineffable prepotence. Wherefore,
having once been a whole being, and being now but the half of a whole
being, all articulately-speaking men most fervently desire and pursue
any other creature whom they take to be their lost counterpart, that
the two halves may again be mingled and fused in one: for, as Plato
definitely teaches, _Love is the Desire and Pursuit of the Whole_. For
which cause, I was aware that all men and all women needed nothing
more than this, and nothing so much as this, that Love should work out
perfectly, each finding other, returning to the aboriginal nature.
These things, then, occupied the mind in my breast.
And, moreover, I considered how that I was going (obeying the Delphic
oracle) where I twice had been before, once alive and once dead, to
wit, to the House of Hades, tremendous king of infernal shades, whom
I was to despoil of his treasure and the crown of all wisdom. Yet,
still, I knew not what that treasure and crown might be. And, having
remembered thus much of the past, I held a sort of council with my
noble mind, which determined me to despoil that king of whatever might
seem to be of greatest worth in his kingdom.
Wherefore, having summoned Thalos my slave, bathed and purified, I set
the magic mirror on his palm, bidding him to gaze therein, and laying a
very strong spell on him so that he should have clear sight of that one
thing of which I had no knowledge.
And his little body became rigid; and his long black eyes stared; and
the sweet sweat oozed like dewdrops from his flesh, and he shook with
fear, insomuch that I chained his arms and legs with my own hands as
in brazen manacles, forcing him to do my will. And, when I refused him
permission to swoon, then his rigours took him stupendously; and, being
as rigid as a strung bow, he began to declare his vision, saying: _The
golden goddess, sitting with her star-crowned brothers, in the dark,
disdaining a victorious hero, and an unmanlike king, and a shepherd
beloved of goddesses, and innumerable warriors contending among
themselves._ And then I could no longer hold him: for limb-relaxing
Sleep, the all-subduer, drew him from me.
But I knew what I wanted to know.
For this utterance was all of a piece with the divination which my same
slave had made, when he wore a young Egyptian body on the sacred river
of Khem, saying: _The silver god, leading the golden goddess, from the
dark._ For who was the golden goddess in the dark, but fair long-robed
golden Helen daughter of Zeys the Swan, dwelling in the unlighted House
of Hades?
And who were her star-crowned brothers, but the Great Twins, godlike
youths, Kastor the tamer of horses and Polydeykes the pugilist,
star-crowned sharers of immortality?
And whose blameless homage was refused by Golden Helen, but that of
the victorious hero Theseys, and that of sandy-haired old impotent
Menelaos, and that of the woman-mad shepherd Paris beloved of Hera and
Aphrodite and Pallas Athene most righteous of goddesses?
And for whom, but for Golden Helen, had innumerable warriors, my
comrades and my enemies, contended during ten long years of war, and
after?
And I asked of the mind in my lordly breast, saying: Who, then, is the
Treasure of Hades?
And my mind answered me, saying: Who but Golden Helen, sought of all
men.
Then, indeed, the mind in my dear breast bounded with an unmentioned
and unthought-of joy in thinking of these things, and in remembering
also the things which were to come, to wit, the leading of the golden
goddess from the dark, the moving with her among gods and goddesses,
and the sitting with her on a throne.
In this manner did I find out the meaning of the Delphic oracle and
the spoil which I was to win from the king of the netherworld with the
crown of all wisdom.
THE SIXTEENTH PAPYRUS
But I went to Tainaron, where the hollow ship lay at anchor in a little
cove to the west of the headland, being too great to draw up on the
black beach; and, indeed, at Tainaron there is no sand fit for such a
purpose. But I came ashore on a raft made of spars and planks, which
the slaves of my galley pushed before them swimming, thrusting the sea
back with their strong legs. And the raft carried also my gear, and my
silver-shining chariot adorned with crabs and moons in mother-of-pearl
with its mystic charioteer poised on the front of the rail: but my four
white horses swam lustily apart, having no fear of deep water.
Not every day does mortal man drive down in awful pomp to the dark
House of Hades. And, indeed, I did not know the way: nor was there
a sacrifice proper for so great an occasion ready to my hand.
Wherefore, I mentioned the point in a prayer addressed to my grandsire,
wing-footed Hermes, inhabiting olympian palaces; and he sent me a
Dream, to tell me how to prepare for his coming. But the Dream said
that I was to build up an altar of stones on a mound of earth, and to
make a fire, and to sacrifice my four white horses to the areiopagos of
the immortals; and, after the sacrifice, I was to feast with my crew;
and, at moonset, I was to cast fresh fennel on a clear fire, having
dismissed all the lusty slaves to my galley with a commandment there to
await my return.
But, when I awakened, the sun was close above the distant mountains,
all ruddy with his hard day’s course and ready for the evening. And
I bade my slaves to build up an altar, and to do all other things
which the Dream had commanded me: but they were unwilling to slay the
beautiful horses; and they coughed horribly when I did it myself;
and they made no difficulty about thoroughly enjoying themselves at
the feast when the sacrifice was duly done. And, in the midst of
the sacrifice, a portent was vouchsafed to me: for the smoke of my
burnt-offering was not blown abroad by the evening breeze: but it
ascended straightly as a column to the sky above. And this I knew to
be a very favourable omen, auguring that my sacrifice was accepted as
pleasing to the areiopagos of divine ones who inhabit olympian palaces.
And, with a glad heart, I did on my shining panoply, the silver-shining
armour of Akhilleys, and his god-made shield, with the singing bow of
Eyrytos: so that I shone like the star which rises in autumn, whose
resplendent rays shine among many stars in the depths of the night. But
I slung my revolver on my body, in a secret hollow of my armour, having
fed it full and made it ready to spit dire death.
But, when my mariners had cut me many faggots of fresh fennel, heaping
the same in a stack apt to my hand, then, indeed, I dismissed them to
the hollow ship, with a commandment to await my return, all as the
Dream had ordained.
And, as soon as I was alone, I very eagerly began to cast choice twigs
of fennel on the redly-glowing embers of my sacrifice. And the sweet
face of the moon became pale and paler, as the face of a dear woman
about to swoon; and she snatched up a few soft mists wherewith to
cloak herself in her going. For black night was creeping up the vault
of heaven to overwhelm her; and she fled before him, as a maid flies
before a blameless Ethiopian slave, whose bestial nostrils snuffle
as he capers meditating very evil deeds. And anon she escaped with
her purity. But I sat down to wait: nor did sweet Sleep light on my
eyelids, when I contemplated the Pleiades, and setting Arktoyros, and
the Bear (which they also call the Waggon) turning itself and watching
Orion, but it alone does not share in the washing of the ocean.
But soon there was nothing between me and the darkness, excepting the
glow of my fire. And I, being very eager for an apparition, grasped the
stalks of fennel by handfuls, flinging them on to the roaring blaze,
till all the world was awhirl with the fragrant greyish-blue smoke
beloved of my grandsire Hermes, beneficial son of Zeys.
And, very far away, I heard a noise as of the noise of a single
thunderclap. But I was aware that it was the clang of the great gate
on lofty Olympos closing behind the wing-footed messenger who was
coming in answer to my prayer.
But, while I was awaiting his swift arrival, I ceased not to feed the
flame with the magic herb. And, suddenly, I became aware that I was not
alone. For a Presence was very near me, but hidden by the clouds of
scented smoke; and two glowing eyes were fixed upon me: also, from time
to time, I caught a glimpse of horns and pointed ears very terrible of
aspect.
Then, indeed, sharp Fear tried to lay her clammy hand upon my heart:
as a boy of evil mind, desiring to annoy his bedfellow, slips a wet
toad into the white armpit of him sleeping. And I said to myself, in
the words of one dying: _I am about to see Pan_.[37] For I remembered
the adage concerning a man who is given over unto sweet white Death, of
whom it is said _Let him see Pan_.[38] For, indeed, it is known that
the faces of the dead shew one thing very clearly, and that is that
they have found out everything which there is to be known by mortal
man, and are satisfied, as we all have seen in the dear beautiful face
of Diyllos: so that, in saying of such an one _He has seen Pan_,[39]
it is signified that he is satisfied with perfect knowledge, having
seen All. Wherefore, for the moment, I wondered whether the crown of my
wisdom was to come to me (by the will of the gods) in this manner.
But the mind in my lordly breast instantly bade me to face fate with
a brave and dauntless countenance: for which cause, I summoned all my
boldness, fearlessly gazing upon the glowing eyes amid the smoke, being
determined to know all which there was to be known, without counting
the cost, and meeting sweet Death unflinchingly and as a lover. Thus,
for some moments, I eyed rustic Pan: for the silvan god indeed was
looking upon me. But, as white Death gave no sign of approaching me,
I remembered that I had no cause for fear, seeing that my veins were
filled with the ichor of the immortal gods as well as with the blood of
a man.
But, at length, Pan came out of the smoky cloud and stood before me,
goat-footed, hairy. His voice, when he spoke, was like the sound of
leaves lying in the forest which sigh when some wanton breeze disturbs
their slumbers. And he said: “Now do I greet thee, O Stranger. And
whence comest thou? And what manner of man art thou? Art thou violent
and wild and not just? Or art thou hospitable, and hast thou a holy
mind? For I rejoice to see that thou art not like other earth-trampling
men, who incontinently die (a most foolish and reprehensible custom)
whensoever as they set eyes on me, rendering themselves unfit for
serious conversation, while I am a-weary of the prattle of the
children of hills and streams and trees.”
But I made audacious answer to the simple country-god, saying: “O Pan,
folk say that I am both thy half-brother and thy step-father: for I am
King Odysseys, the sacker of cities, and prudent Penelope (who was my
wife) bore thee to Hermes, my immortal grandsire. Wherefore we should
be kin of some kind, I and thou.”
Whereat he laughed merrily; and he answered: “Thou thyself dost not
believe that tale, O wily Odysseys: for thou well knowest that I am as
old as Time, being own brother to great Khronos. Nevertheless, any god
might indeed be proud to call cousins with King Odysseys. Wherefore,
tell me, O cousin, whence thou art now come: for it seemeth that nephew
Hades hath relaxed his grim ward of thee.”
But, ere I could open my lips in reply, the rustic god cried: “Aha! Who
cometh here? ’Tis young Hermes, as I live with goats!”
Thus he spoke. But I saw the grey-blue smoke-cloud broken by golden
radiances flashing here and there. And, looking, we beheld now
the golden wand, now the beautiful swiftly-flying limbs shod with
golden-winged sandals, now the cloak of gold and purple tissue blown
back from the body in flight; and, anon, the youthful bird of heaven
burst upon us out of the fume in all the inmarcesible splendour of nude
immortality.
In this manner, I first saw Hermes, the Luck-bringer, my grandsire, a
god.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] ΟΨΕϹΘΑΙ ΜΕΛΛΩ ΤΟ ΠΑΝ.
[38] ΒΛΕΠΕΤΩ ΤΟ ΠΑΝ.
[39] ΕΩΡΑΚΕ ΤΟ ΠΑΝ: I am reluctantly compelled to confess that I have
quite failed to trace these illuminating adages to any source prior to
the year B.C. 45; and can only recommend application to the erudite
author of a treatise called _Dodo_, whose writings clearly demonstrate
that he has at least a very fair working knowledge of their ideal
content. A. H.
THE SEVENTEENTH PAPYRUS
Now that divine young one of gods came to me holding in his hand the
halters of four white horses, all mad, incomparable in splendour,
tossing their heads, and stamping with their feet. And Pan looked
curiously upon us, while sprightly Hermes took me to his beautiful
large breast, calling me Son and Child: for the heart of the youthful
god was glad when he saw the goat-footed divine one with whom I stood
as an equal; and the sheen of my silver-shining armour glittered with
moony gems. And, first, he began to speak very eloquently (as his
manner is), having a tale to tell of the cause of his lateness in
coming.
For he said that the blessed gods, having sniffed the savour of my
sacrifice with pleasure, graciously deigned to acknowledge the same by
a gift. And, seeing that I had not hesitated to offer my only horses,
those divine ones were pleased to send me another team. Wherefore,
four heavenly steeds were selected from that godly stock which the
indomitable hero Herakles won from King Laomedon. But, when quick-eyed
though blindfolded Love had seen my grandsire about to descend bearing
away beautiful horses, he had howled (that dire intractable boy),
only for the sake of annoying, saying that steeds ought not to be sent
to me, seeing that he himself (even Love) with his burning breath and
wide-sailing wings was ready to come at my call to be my beast, my
bird, my bearer of burdens and deep delight for ever and ever. But,
when Hermes persisted (for the thing was an order from the All-father
which must be obeyed), then Divine Eros had betaken himself to his bow
and arrows, shooting through the bars of heaven’s gate, so that more
than nine times the halters had been severed, and the horses had gone
free, galloping here and there, till, at last, being caught and herded
safely out of range, they were led down to me, apparently docile and
ready for the traces. Such was the apology of Hermes.
But Pan, standing by and listening attentively, saw how highly I was
in favour with the gods of lofty Olympos; and he stooped, picking up
a sprig of fragrant fennel, wherewith he touched my two eyes, saying:
“Receive the power of seeing as the gods see.”
And instantly he was gone, I know not where. But Hermes laughed,
triumphantly merry, saying: “Thou, O my brave child, hast indeed won
old Pan’s favour: for few there be to whom he would communicate this
virtue, a very signal one, as thou shalt know anon.”
Thus having spoken, he bade me to prepare for my fearsome journey.
But, while I obeyed him, he illuminated my mind with knowledge of
the ordeals through which I was to pass: yet he could not tell me
everything, for the time was short; and, as much of the rest as he
might, he said that he would tell me by the way. For he was going
with me as far as was permitted. But I went even gleefully, having so
affable and so splendid a young god for my comrade.
But I yoked the white steeds to the well-wrought chariot, carven of
silver inlaid with adornments of crabs and moons in mother-of-pearl,
whereon was poised the silver Love, blindfolded, naked, larger than
life, and just in the act of flight. But my grandsire examined my
glittering armour; and, having approved it, he wrapped me in my great
trailing mantle of tissue of silver lined with white furs and clasped
with the signs of the crab and the moon. Furthermore, he gave me a
heavenly amulet for my use and comfort, formed of two chalcedonyxes
having the similitude of eyes set in the Sign of the Crab in a silver
finger-ring, saying that I would need it on occasion. And he let me
twist long stalks of fennel into a monstrous torch, three stalks with
seven stalks and nine stalks, nineteen in all. And, having lighted it,
we mounted my chariot, both I and the god.
Now the silver Love on the chariot was motionless and dumb, as the
manner of gods is when they are made of metal: yet it evidently was
a very potent and unheard-of magic, though neither Hermes nor I,
Odysseys, wily and knowing as we both were, fully understood it, for
the divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces had not manifested their
will in this particular. For which cause, I stood in my proper place
on the left:[40] but Hermes went to the other side of the flying Love,
seizing the reins, and urging the huge white horses onward with the
shouts of a charioteer. But they plunged madly forth into the cloud of
fennel-smoke.
I closed my eyes, smarting with the murky reek. But the flaming
firebrand which I bore flared like a banner far behind me: so that,
though I love sunlight as well as any man alive, I gladly and joyously
went (god-driven) from the grain-giving earth to the netherworld,
dashing into the secret adit whereby the souls of dwellers in daylight
go down to the dark house of Hades. Thus, then, I went, to despoil the
king of shades.
But we galloped on, at more than mortal speed, down the broad path,
never slipping nor stumbling: for Hephaistos had shodden the heavenly
steeds, and Hermes drove them, mightily encouraging them with
shoutings. And my firebrand, fanned by the wind of the speed of my
going, flamed on the pallor of dead men, terror-stricken, who were
passing down the same road, like sheep unshepherded, toward old Kharon
and his insatiable barge.
We came to the shelving river-bank; and the Old Man of Styx drove many
souls from our path as the silver-shining chariot dashed irresistibly
into the stink of the putrid stream. But my lusty horses swam swiftly
to the farther hythe; and Hermes buoyed up the ponderous chariot with
magic so that it did not sink. But we speeded on, over sandy desolate
wastes, veiled in impenetrable gloom. Fast and faster tore those
untiring stallions of matchless breed; and the whirling wheels span
round; and chill winds blew in our faces, so that I wrapped myself
shivering in my furry cloak. League after league we flew, through
unpeopled wildernesses; and the earth became no more sandy, but thick
with salt, which flashed back the gleam of my fast-burning torch, lying
wide-spread on both sides of the narrowing way.
But when I (being inquisitive) addressed a word to my grandsire
concerning the phrenetic speed of our going, and what should come
thereafter, and the salt which lay by the way, then, indeed, he
answered me, saying: “The tides of hell are flowing fast; and, as we
crossed Styx at the slack, so we must cross Pyriphthlegethon at the
full, or we shall not win through: for none may traverse those dread
streams excepting at such times. Nor can a man tarry upon the banks,
by reason of the singularly putrid fumes arising. Neither may a man
dally in this wilderness of salt, which is sacrosanct: for every grain
thereof contains selections from the body of a dead man, and thus they
are preserved against the day when they shall be required for use once
more.”
To whom I, without delay, spoke boldly, saying: “And what of those men
who (by the sanction of the gods) have not died until after they have
occupied several different bodies?” For I was thinking of Amenemhat and
of Neandros and Thalos, and of the other persons whom I myself (from
time to time) have metamorphosed.
But young Hermes responded to me, saying: “Know, O inquisitive wily
and well-beloved child, that, in every body of a mortal, there is
that which is beautiful and that which is hideous, just as, in every
soul of a mortal, there is that which is good and that which is evil.
Wherefore, it is the will of Zeys, the Father of all, that the evil and
the hideous shall perish everlastingly, but the good and the beautiful
blended together shall live in immortal palaces.”
And it seemed to me very strange to hear such words of wisdom coming
from a youth, whose cheeks of summer hue shewed not the tender mother
of the vine-down. But he, Hermes, the powerful Argicide, fell again
to urging the heavenly steeds, crying: “On, on, to the house of shady
Hades!”
And the gloom before us was illumined with a dull-red glow, which shot
up into the dark vault like a roof above our heads: for, indeed, we
were rushing into the very abysses of the netherworld; and the light
grew clearer and more fierce to us advancing. But, behind us, we left a
trail of smoke from my flaming firebrand, and a trail of steam from the
straining stallions. And the cold wind died; and immensurable flames
streamed upward from the river of fire, licking invisible heights,
flashing and flickering. And I heard my divine charioteer praising
great Zeys with bated breath, for that we were come at a propitious
time. For, as we flew down to the blackened shore, our wheels drove
heavily among the crackling cinders; and the flames died, and
evanesced: for, as the tides of the accursed mystic river were flowing
full, the flames (which blazed and roared through ebb and flow) were
hushed in phosphorescent silence.
But my mighty steeds, mad by nature, plunged bravely in the stream
which bubbled and boiled with recent heat: yet, because of their
heavenly breed, they (already mad) succumbed not to the scalding flood,
though they screamed with terror and piety, as did Ares (potent in
battle) when (wounded by Diomedes son of Tydeys) he fell, covering
seven acres, and fled (bellowing) to Paieon (the surgeon of the gods)
to be healed of his hurt. But, when we were on the other side of that
flaming moat which surrounds the city of the dead, Hermes assuaged
the pangs of my mad horses with a holy _Spell_ which he contrived to
remember just then, so that they became much madder than they ever had
been before and went most valiantly onward.
Then, also, that same divine one of gods cried aloud to me, saying: “If
thou thyself canst remember any inchantments, work them well now, O
master of crafts: for this locality is very fatal to miserable mortals
as a rule; and twice already thou hast escaped herefrom alive: but, for
a third attempt something extremely exquisite of magic will be found
desirable.”
Thus he admonished me. But I instantly recited aloud most potent
_Spells_, to wit, _The Spell of Sniffing the Air and Getting Power over
the Water in the Netherworld_, and _The Spell of Not Dying Again in the
Netherworld_,[41] making the proper _Signs_, and saying:
“_I take hold of air and water: I watch and guard the egg of the great
cackler._
“_It groweth, and I will grow: it sniffeth the air, and I will sniff
the air._
“_It liveth, and I will live: I will triumph in the air and the water
of the netherworld._
“_Let the place of hiding things be opened: for I will not be treated
with scorn._
“_I will not submit to any violence: nor will I die again in the
netherworld._”
And, having thus composed and fortified my will, we continued to rage
furiously onward.
Now the gloom of the place was very grey and terrible, insomuch that
the mad heads of my horses were invisible to us standing behind them in
the chariot, for a dense fog was enveloping the netherworld. And, anon,
we found our way blocked by a great and monstrous wall which frowned
blackly in the shade, wherein loomed a mountainous barbacan fortified
with turrets and pierced by a tremendous gate. But the gate was
guarded by unsleeping Kerberos, the hound of hell spoken of by Pythian
Phoibos Apollon, barking at me with three ugly heads and gnashing the
relative mouthfuls of teeth. Whom my grandsire appeased, silencing him
with the _Word of Power_.[42]
But divine Hermes began to warn me, saying that his business ended in
the realms of shady Hades, his uncle; and he gave me to know that, in
what more remained to be done, I must trust only in myself: but he bade
me to be very wary regarding the mood in which I should find surly
King Hades, biding my time and not precipitantly asking inopportune or
excessive favours. And these were the mandates which he had brought
to me from Zeys Pantokrator and Pampator. But, when he had said these
things and embraced me, and when he had whispered a most pious and
secret monition, then, indeed, he kicked off and vanished away; and his
swift winged-sandals bore him again to the summit of lofty Olympos.
But I lifted up my voice, terrifically shouting to the warden of the
gate. And a blameless titan peered over the battlements, and brayed
with the formidable degorgement of a trumpet, demanding of me the
password. Whom I answered in the language of the gods, speaking one
of the _Words_ which Hermes had left with me, but I may not write it
on account of a religious reason. And instantly the gate unfolded its
enormous hinges.
In these circumstances, then, I came thundering in my silver-shining
chariot invading the city of infernal shades.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] But was “the left” really his proper place? A. H.
[41] These are well-known Egyptian inchantments, and Mr. C. perhaps had
them from the Rt. Rev. Amenemhat of Tanis. A. H.
[42] “Down, dog, down!” is the exact (though perhaps somewhat
colloquial) rendering of this particular _Spell_. _Cf._ Lucian. A. H.
THE EIGHTEENTH PAPYRUS
Now I was all alone. And, before me on both sides, there stretched a
sad-coloured meadow, apparently interminable, thickly sown with flowers
of pinkish pear-like asphodel. And no sky smiled above my head: but
only an impenetrable dark-grey mist, which hung down also, like the
curtains of a tent, at a very little distance on all sides of me. But
the mind in my noble breast warned me to pause, and to ponder, and to
contrive a few new wiles before going further. Wherefore, having abated
the madness of my horses, I betook myself to deep thought.
And it appeared to me very desirable that I should not manifest myself
to the denizens of that neighbourhood, wheresoever they might be
concealing themselves, without the full equipage and paraphernalia
proper to a personage of my quality. And I very greatly wished that I
had brought at least my two slaves, Neandros and Thalos, the one on
account of his stalwart virtue, the other on account of his luminous
innocence, and both full of grace, that they might serve me if need
should arise. And I began to consider whether there was any magic
whereby I might summon them to my side: for I already had done so many
wonderful things by myself, and the heavenly gods had shewn themselves
so entirely favourable to me, that I was not at any time daunted
when confronted by what the purely stupid man is wont to cringe to
as a sheer impossibility. For the minds of the prudent, indeed, are
flexible. And a master of magic (who is thoroughly in earnest) may
achieve unmentioned and unthought-of deeds, of course with the aid of
the immortal gods.
But, while I was pondering these high matters, I saw two young boys,
like twin-brothers, coming toward me across the meadow of asphodel and
emerging from the obscurity of the mist. They were well-grown and in
the prime of their age; and their gait betokened a very divine origin.
Both were most sweet and gentle of aspect: but this one was of dusky
hue, crowned with a garland of white poppies, and (in his tender hand)
he bore a dark horn, from which (from time to time) he scattered a fine
dust in the air, and an obsequious zephyr carried it away to fall on
the eyes of mortals: but that one was of a candid whiteness colder than
hoar-frost, such as I never have seen on the grain-giving earth either
in marble or milk or the delicate flesh of the young in the clear of
the moon, or the snow which falls in winter; and his pure candour was
crowned with a garland of pinkish pearl-like asphodel, and in his soft
hand he bore a torch extinguished. Wherefore, I recognized them for
dusky Sleep the All-tamer, and pale kind Death his brother, the twin
sons of Khronos.
And now, indeed, the mind in my lordly breast spoke loudly, telling me
what I ought to do. For which cause, I addressed a simple word to these
divine ones; shewing the _Sign of Life_, engaging their aid by spells
unutterable. But, when I had mentioned my desire of having with me
Neandros my squire and Thalos my foot-boy, whose lives were bound unto
mine, which itself was terminable only at the supernal will of the god,
then, white Death (coldly smiling) turned away, saying that the matter
concerned his brother. Wherefore, I made my petition to care-dispersing
Sleep, saying the _Spell_: “_O Sleep, king of all blessed gods and of
all men, if ever indeed thou didst lend an ear to mine intreaty, now,
too, be persuaded; and I will own gratitude to thee all my days._”[43]
And the dusky god also was favourable to me: for, having cast a pinch
of dust from his horn into the air, it fell on the eyelids of Neandros
and Thalos waiting for me in my hollow ship at Tainaron, so that their
limbs were relaxed, and they submitted themselves to divine Sleep, who
brought them straight to me in the meadow of asphodel.
But, when we three had ascended the silver-shining chariot, I gave the
reins to my squire standing on my right hand: but my foot-boy attended
me, eagerly clutching the rail behind. Thus, I, with Neandros and
Thalos, swiftly galloped onward through the grey gloom, approaching the
palace of shady King Hades.
And, having whizzed through its brazen portal, we drave horrifically
into an immeasurable hall. And the awfully whirring wheels of my
chariot, with the silver Love perched upon it, amazed the uncountable
multitudes collected therein, insomuch that whimpering Fear took
possession of all, and Rumour went squealing everywhere, whispering
that some hero from out of the sunlight alive was invading the house of
Hades. But I cared naught for the ineffectual gibberings of mere shades.
And I pursued my way to where I saw the great black throne set, with
the very shady god enthroned thereon, and Queen Persephone by his
side, and a court below him of the arbiters of the dead, Aiakos,
Minos, Rhadamanthos, just, inexorable, most venerable, uttering
immutable dooms for mortal men. And, near by, I saw also great-hearted
yellow-haired Akhilleys, the greatest hero and faithfullest friend
which the world has ever seen; and my heart in my dear breast leaped
when he hailed me passing by, recognizing on me his glittering armour
which I had won as a spoil: for, to have a trusty comrade in such a
shady place is very good.
But, when I checked my chariot before the throne, then, King Hades (the
most righteous of gods) sternly addressed me, saying: “Tell me thy
name, O Stranger greatly-daring, and thy father’s name; and say also
how thou comest hither.”
And thus I answered him: “O King of Tartarean realms and dreadful
brother of Zeys, my father’s name was James--may the gods grant rest to
his gentle soul,--and I am Nicholas the Crab, client of the Muses and
of far-darting Phoibos Apollon. But divine Hermes brought me hither,
acknowledging me to be his own grandson, called Odysseys son of Laertes
by all articulately-speaking men who walk in the sweet sunlight.”
But the brow of blameless Hades became blacker than starless night; and
he frowned so ferociously that even his shady eyes were shrouded. And
he cried: “So thou art that much-contriving Odysseys, who aforetime
camest hither and twice escaped alive. And now thou wouldst perplex
me with a wily tale, mixing Was with Will-be and Is in a medley, and
bearing a double name full of deceit. But doubtless that is part of thy
evil purpose: for thy purpose cannot but be evil. Perchance thou hast
it in mind to depose me, or even to steal away with my queen, divine
Persephone. But, since thine overweening audacity has driven thee,
foolish, to place thyself in my power a third time, thou shalt not now
escape me.” And he howled for titans to trammel me, as a trickster.
Thus he spoke. But, when I saw giants towering like mountains near me,
in the gloom, then, instantly, I broke my necklace of heliotrope stones
moistened with the juice of marigolds; and I thrust the two halves of
it into the hands of my two trusty slaves, making the _Act of Will_
for them, whereby they became unseen, even by Stygian gods, unknowing
it. But I gave them a short command. And the stalwart Neandros started
my horses, goading them again to madness in the twinkling of an eye,
turning them, so that my slaves and my chariot went ramping out of
the palace of blameless Hades like a flash of white thunder. By which
means, both my slaves evaded the Tyrant of Tartaros. But, being
visible and willing, I remained: for, as yet I had not done any of
the wily deeds which I had come to do, and, moreover, there was no
retreat for me till I had ravished a spoil from the king of the shades.
Furthermore, I was not unmindful of the very pious and secret monitions
which Hermes had whispered to me at parting, when he said: _Under-go to
Over-come_.[44]
And, so, I waited; and gigantic hands were thrust down out of
obscurity, which seized me, and shook me violently to and fro over
enormous areas: so that giddiness nauseated me, and the eyes in my face
refused to continue seeing, and my strength also rebelled and left
me, and the utter darkness of oblivion settled upon me, shrouding the
senses of my soul.
Thus, then, I began my ordeals in the Quest of the Treasure of Hades.
FOOTNOTES:
[43] This is perfectly Homeresque. A. H.
[44] I am almost inclined to say that this delicious epigram contains
the whole body of Christian doctrine. But of course I speak under
correction. A. H.
THE NINETEENTH PAPYRUS
But when, anon, I had recollected my forces, I was in a pit, dismal,
slimy, creeping with long cold worms. And great chains, also, were
hanged to my wrists and waist and ankles. But, far above my head, there
was a little window, very heavily barred; and, through it, there came a
dull-red glow from the distant River Pyriphthlegethon. And the shrieks
and moans of damned souls in mind-grieving torment elsewhere was the
music provided for my entertainment.
As for myself, it seemed that I had been stripped of my armour, and
(indeed) of all which I had brought with me from the sunlight; and,
now, I was mother-naked, gyved also, and with no gear which would
deliver me from my plight, excepting the knowledge of sacred spells
which was stored in my mind, and a large quantity of natural strength
which was stored in my body. But I rejoiced, seeing that I was unhurt,
and as able as ever: because I was aware that I should have the greater
fame when I should have passed through this ordeal. For there is not
any greater renown for a man, while he exists, than what he shall have
earned naked with his feet and his hands.
But, first, I gathered up the weight of my fetters, to try to break
them; and, when I felt them to be as massive as the cable of my galley,
then I let them drop again, not to waste time: for my noble mind began
to devise insidious wiles. But, when the chains clashed against the
slimy floor, I heard a sound of a drawing of bolts, and a brazen door
was opened in my pit near by. And, to me, there entered a very gravely
objectionable individual.
For she was a barren virgin of inconceivable antiquity, whose skinny
arms were joined to her withered body by membraneous wings such as are
the wings of bats and vampires and pterodactyls and all other flying
dragons; and her slit mouth grinned disgustingly, having loose yellow
fangs dangling from the dripping corners: vipers, also, writhed in the
dankness of her sparse hair; and her hands were filled with torches
and scourges. Moreover, what I took to be blood was oozing out of her
pustulous eyeballs. And thus she said: “How now, O wily Odysseys! And
art thou yet alive? For we deemed that the titans had shaken the life
from thy white bones. And that, indeed, would have made our task an
easy one: for we are not accustomed to torment live men here among the
shades.”
Thus she spoke: but the mind in my lordly breast bade me to treat this
blameless Erinnys with affability while keeping her at arm’s length,
that I might gain a benefit from her conversation without coming to
close quarters with her. For, when a female of this kind prevails,
her audacity is more than one can bear without blasphemy; and, when
she is affrighted or affronted, she is a still greater mischief to her
house and city. Wherefore I said: “Hail, O divine one of goddesses,
serpent-crowned, for I am ignorant of thy blessed name, or I would ask
thee where we are.”
But to me the most righteous of furies responded, saying: “I am
night-born Tisiphone, a scratcher of earth-walking men after they are
dead. But this is the dungeon where Pirithoos lay to be scratched by me
during a hundred years.”
Now there is nothing more terrible than such an impudent female as
this. Wherefore, having prepared a wile, not to enrage her, but to
delude her, by seeming to be overcome by piety and terror, then, I let
my mouth gape like a fool’s while I repeated after her: “A hundred
years!”
But she began to be garrulous. But I watched for an opportunity
of entangling her in her talk. And thus she chattered: “Yea, here
indeed lay Pirithoos, son of Ixion, during a hundred years. For King
Hades would not give him to sweet Death, so black was his crime.
But, every night, we sisters three tormented his body as though he
were dead, using fiery tortures and nail-tearings, until the decree
came that his shade should repose in peace, being purged. But thou,
also, O much-enduring Odysseys, will lie here, chained, purging thy
presumptuous prepotence: but, not till after thy death, may we deal
with thee according to thy doom, whatever that may be.”
And, having thus enlightened me, the very excessive Fury suddenly left
me, with extempore shrieks and a flapping of her skinny wings.
Thereafter, I forget how some days passed: for a prisoner may not
reckon the flight of Time in the region of Tartaros, excepting by
marking the ebb and flow of the fiery tides of Pyriphthlegethon.
Moreover, I was occupied in my mind, reviewing all my store of magic
wisdom and contriving many wiles.
And, by chance, one day, I became aware that I was hearing a song; and
the sound of it seemed to come from very far away, sweetly, like the
voice of a cicada drunk on dewdrops,[45] which, in the woods, sitting
on a tree, sends forth a delicate lily-like voice.
Now, in the house of shady Hades (most righteous of gods), this is
the condition of mortals when they are dead. For their nerves have no
longer flesh and bones: but the strong force of burning fire subdues
them, when first the mind leaves the white bones; and the soul,
gibbering like a dream, flits and flutters away. Wherefore, the souls
of the dead cannot sing, nor do they attempt it, being occupied in
shrieking with agony and fear. For which cause, I was vastly amazed to
hear so very sweet a song, so grave, so quiet in tone; and, having
summoned all my strength, despite the weighty manacles which trammelled
me, I leaped up to the high barred window which looked out into the
gloom. But I saw little more than that my dungeon was a pit in a rocky
height: for it happened to be the hour of slack tide, when the flames
of Pyriphthlegethon die down for a while.
And the wonderful song came more clearly from below, thrilling the
darkness of black night.
But, when, anon, the voice was silent, I wedged myself (as best I
could) into the narrow alcove of the window, waiting for the ebb of
the tide, when I might see more plainly in the light of the increscent
flames.
And, when the flickering gleam of the fires leaped up, I saw that my
pit was a cell in a watch-tower perched high above the walls of the
house of blameless Hades. But there was a great gulph fixed below, and
bleak meadows beyond, swept by mists and winds of hell.
And, while I gazed, the lily-like voice began again to sing,
maidenlike, very solemn, and of entrancing sweetness. But I, listening,
heard it; and the heart in my dear breast thrilled strangely: for it
seemed as though Memory (that divine one of goddesses) was opening yet
once more certain chambers in my mind, unknown, or unremembered; and
I was aware of treasures stored therein, whose very existence I had
forgotten. But the simple song went sadly on, as though the singer sat
in patience waiting, singing only just to pass the time, but always
with hope, very faint indeed but never-failing, ever-enduring, in the
depth of her maiden breast. And thus she sang:
_Once, a flower, in a garden where gold sunlight
flamed on all with its fervent splendour, flourish’d
stainless aye, from the tender seed’s upspringing
to the snow of its yet-unfolded blossom.
When, at length, on its stem so straight and slender,
fragrant, delicate, fresh, this blossom budded,
men from near and a host from far came, each one
longing only to pluck and wear the full flower.
Came a stripling of noble mien and stately,
strong and clean as a sword. His bright eyes saw her,
shyly paused to admire, and pass’d in silence:
but she, pure as a priestess, ne’er forgot him.
Came a hero in triumph, wearing garlands
woven close with the glory of full-blown roses;
and he stole from her place the snow-white blossom--
rescued soon by the two who were her wardens,
Came a noisily-shouting dotard, jealous
for the bud, which he knew not how to cherish:
him, the lord of the garden fair permitted;
and he carried away the prize unfolded.
Came one mad with the scents of gaudy posies,
One who revell’d in robbing other gardens:
he, the delicate blossom, ravish’d: but she
never open’d for him her snow-white petals.
Last of all, then, the gods in grace restored her
to the peace of the sunlit garden’s splendour;
and the youth who, afore, had seen and loved her,
would have taken her: but dire Fate o’ertook him.
Still she blooms in a garden, where the winter
frost and cold cannot quench the golden sunlight
in her heart, nor the storms defile her whiteness;
waiting, till, on his breast, she bursts in full flower._[46]
And the strange sweet dancing rhythm made my pulses bound; and my
breath came quickly in accord. For it was like a sudden-blazing
thunderbolt illuminating the recesses of my mind; and I remembered the
object of my quest, to wit, Golden Helen, who, when I was not much
more than a boy, had watched me faring girded high through the ford
of Eyrotas near windy Lakedaimon--Golden Helen, whom her star-crowned
brothers (Kastor the tamer of horses and Polydeykes the pugilist) had
rescued from the blameless hero Theseys carrying her away when she
was a tender girl,--Golden Helen, whom King Tyndareys had given in
so-called marriage to loud-shouting impotent old sandy-haired Menelaos,
blameless, and blubber-lipped,--Golden Helen, whom woman-mad Paris had
reft from her farcical husband,--Golden Helen, who had come again to me
in the land of Khem, long ages since, pure as snow or fire, and always
mine alone,--Golden Helen, whom black Fate had reft from me, when I
died that time by the sacred river of Egypt, being wounded to death by
blameless Kirke’s son and mine, unknowing Telegonos.[47]
But now, indeed, I knew of a truth that Golden Helen was that very
Treasure of Hades which I had come to win: for, by favour of Queen
Persephone, she was safe in the netherworld, and only there, for in
the netherworld there are no men capable of worrying a lady, but
merely shades of men, who are quite negligible; and, there, she (being
immortal) could live faithful to me and not altogether without certain
amenities. Wherefore, with a great shout, I called her by name.
And she made answer, half-amazed and half-afraid, saying: “Who calleth
me with the voice of one long dead?”
To whom I replied: “I am Odysseys, grandson of Hermes, victor over all
sorts of people; and I am come here for thee, O high-born long-robed
Helen whom I love.”
Thus I spoke. But the golden goddess, filled with joy, said: “O
Odysseys, I have waited long. But now where art thou?”
To whom I answered, saying: “I am imprisoned by shady Hades in a pit in
one of his towers. But canst thou see me at any window, O Golden Helen,
for I can not see thee.”
She said: “I see thee not, O much-enduring Odysseys. But thou shalt
soon escape and come to me: for, though it is not safe for me to go
alone among the gods (married and unmarried) of lofty Olympos to plead
for thee, and, though shady Hades doth regard me with disfavour, yet my
twin-brothers (who are dead to-day in the netherworld where I can speak
firmly to them) will be all alive to-morrow in the neighbourhood of
the immortals, such being their destiny. And they shall demand graces
from my lordly sire Zeys Pantokrator.”
Thus she spoke; and, incontinent, sped away about my business. But I,
being refilled with hopeful ideas, felt my great strength increasing
every moment. Wherefore, with loud laughter, I came down from the
hollow window, beginning to break my bonds. Now, had I been on earth or
sea, I should have used certain magic recipes known to me, whereby the
bitter iron would have crumpled up in sheer bewilderment: but I wished
it to be said of me that I had won the Treasure of Hades with my naked
strength as far as possible, if (indeed) it should be permitted to me
by the gods inhabiting olympian palaces. Wherefore, I set my sinews to
work: for youth was hotter than ever in my veins and my life was raging
within me. And, having tasted the name of the golden goddess desired
of all men, I made that my only spell; and then indeed I burst great
fetters with my little fingers. And, with the same spell (and lusty
loin-heavings), I tore at the staple inset in a flag-stone, dragging
it from its socket. And, with the same spell (and a mighty swelling of
my hardened body), I wrenched asunder the last hoop of iron; and stood
free among my splendidly-shattered shackles.
Thus having delivered myself from bonds, I waited as patiently as
might be. But none came near me; and, indeed, the mind in my noble
breast would have bidden me to attempt the slaughter of anyone, even
a blameless titan, who should have approached me, not openly coming as
a friend. And my patience was tried during all that day, and the day
after: nor did any voice of song cheer me.
But, on the third day, I heard someone buffetting the bars of my
window; and a friendly voice uttered my great name. And, when I
answered, a young and very godly face, crowned on the brow with a star,
looked in upon me through the grating. And the half-immortal hero said:
“Our sister, fair Helen, hath sent us to thee, O Odysseys, sacker of
cities; and here am I, Polydeykes: but brother Kastor keeps watch
below, for Father Zeys wishes to see what we can do unaided. Wherefore,
we two are come to rescue thee: but Queen Persephone hath promised help
hereafter, for Helen’s sake whom she considers injured.”
Thus he spoke: and indeed it was Polydeykes the pugilist, son of Zeys
the Swan, who was taking my part. But, first, he tore at the bars of
the window: but when, indeed, he found them firmly fixed, then he
laughed, warning me away; and, with a boxer’s blow straight from the
shoulder, he drove the massive irons inward, so that they stretched
out, becoming thin as threads with sheer amazement, until they snapped
in twain in every direction and ceased from being bars. But I instantly
leaped to the window, crouching on the sill, till star-crowned Kastor
ascended. And, having squeezed myself through the narrow aperture, the
Great Twins bore me up, supporting me on both sides, till we touched
the solid earth once more.
In this manner, I escaped from my dungeon in the house of Shady Hades.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] One cannot help pointing out that the same poetic imagery as
that used here by Mr. C. seems to have been adopted subsequently by
Meleagros of Gadara. A. H.
[46] I have managed (not without complacency) to render this exquisite
(and perfectly pagan) ditty both literally and in its original
hendecasyllabic or ithyphallic measure--a somewhat difficult task, and
(perhaps) an audacious, in the light of Lord Tennyson’s deplorable
attempt “all composed in a metre of Catullus.” A. H.
[47] I fancy that I do not err in affirming that this particular
incident in the lives of Mr. C. (_i.e._ King Odysseys) may be best
studied in Haggard’s erudite treatise entitled _The World’s Desire_. A.
H.
THE TWENTIETH PAPYRUS
But, upon the instant when we stood in open country at the base of
the rock, there came a fearful whirring of the wings of blameless
harpies, beating down upon us, raucously screeching, calling titans and
furies to their aid. But the Dioskoyroi laughed these bestial birds to
scorn; and Polydeykes dashed his iron-studded boxing-glove into their
ugly faces, whereat the ill-breathing wardens of the damned became
melancholy, and fled back to their station on the wall, feeling much
hurt.
But we went on through the murk, entering a secret chamber in the house
of Hades, where were food and drink, corn-cakes the strength of men,
with cheeses and the fat haunches of pigs, and honey-hearted wine.
Here, also, by the arts of Queen Persephone, I found all my gear, and
my silver-shining armour piled upon a bed, and baths of boiling water
for washing. And having cleaned away my abounding sweat and slime,
I anointed myself, coming out of the bath like to the immortals in
person, and was visited by the shades of most accomplished barbers.
But, when I sat down to a repast (not because of hunger, for, in that
life I was not afflicted with the craving belly, pernicious, which
brings so many evils to mortal men, but merely for the pleasure of
eating and drinking with friends), then, indeed, godlike Kastor and
Polydeykes served me as squires for a religious reason,[48] girding me
again with my silver-shining armour glittering with rock-crystals and
blue moonstones, which I won from Aias son of Telamon, in a foot-race,
after lordly Akhilleys had left the earth.
Which matters having been concluded, the Great Twins conducted me to
the presence of well-disposed Queen Persephone, who addressed to me
unwinged words, saying: “O much-enduring grandson of Hermes, always
wily and ready at need, my cousin Golden Helen hath persuaded me on
thy behalf; and I will protect thee as far as may be from my shady
husband’s wrath. For King Hades hath a bitter spirit, and is fain to
do thee wrong, by reason that thou already hast evaded him twice, and,
also, that thou (by thy wiles and a woolly sheep) didst cause to suffer
much in mind and to perish most miserably his sweet friend the Kyklops
Polyphemos. Nevertheless I will beseech the king to let thee go in
peace, for the sake of avoiding fresh wiles of thine.”
Then came long-robed Helen, the divine one of goddesses; and I read in
her amber eyes that which told me (even more than her song had told
me) that she was mine now, even as she had been willing to be mine in
Egypt long before. Glowed then the heart in my dear breast with love
and joy; and my very form swelled hugely with pride of conquest: for,
not to everyone of earth-trampling men is it given to win the love of a
goddess so true that she will wait for him during a thousand years.
And so we passed into the judgment-hall of Hades, most righteous of
gods brooding on his shady throne: that that which had to be done might
be well-done with the least possible delay. And, before the king, the
judges were giving dooms to the unnumbered dead, as usual. But Queen
Persephone stood before him; and she held my hand, and said: “O king
and lord of shades, it pleaseth me that King Odysseys should retire
forthwith from these dismal realms, with his life, and with all else
which belongeth to him.”
But, at sight of me, surly Hades bounced and had a borborygm; and he
quickly answered her, saying: “Such, O daughter of Demeter, is by no
means my intent: but now I will toss him into Tartaros, there to lie
for ever, on account of his presumption in coming hither after having
twice escaped me, and also on account of the woes which his prepotence
wrought wilily upon my sweet friend, the giver of cherished gifts, even
the Kyklops Polyphemos who gave me this blooming helmet of viewless
night.”
But the holy queen persisted, saying: “Odysseys shall not lie for ever
in Tartaros: for my cousin, Golden Helen, hath persuaded me for his
sake. Yet, seeing that he cannot go hence without thy leave, I say let
him fight a select champion for his liberty.”
But the shady king of terrors instantly assented, saying: “So mote it
be. And irrevocable doom shall come upon him when he has been properly
slain.”
But the Stygian queen smiled in scorn, mocking a king so foolish as
to think that a woman, a daughter of Great Zeys, could not find some
crafty wile for evading an adverse chance if necessary.
And the king cried again, saying: “Who, of all the heroes here, will
fight against Odysseys, grandson of Hermes, for the honour of the house
of Hades?”
And straightway answered him Attik Theseys the conqueror of the Kretan
Minotayr, and loud-shouting impotent old sandy-haired King Menelaos,
and woman-mad Paris son of Dardanian Priam, saying: “That will we do,
O dread lord: for, of old, we sought the love of long-robed Helen,
to have her after the manner of men and women. But she rejected us,
favouring Odysseys with her amber eyes, from her girlhood to this day.
Wherefore, we are ready to fight against him on thy behalf, O Dominator
of the netherworld.”
And these three made their way to the front of the throne. Now Theseys
was a stalwart hero and a very worthy champion: moreover, his very
nose had gone black with jealous hatred. But sandy-haired Menelaos
was merely an aged screecher and whimperer, blear-eyed, rheumy-nosed,
scraggy, knotty as to the joints, and unfit to be put to tussle even
with a foot-boy’s slut out of the kitchens. And Phrygian Paris, once
the comely shepherd of Ida, was a flaccid obese weakling, exhausted by
excess, against whom I should have been ashamed to lift a finger. So I
said. But, from afar, there came a great bellowing from Salaminian Aias
son of King Telamon, very mad with rage, saying that he would fight on
the part of King Menelaos, having also a private grievance to avenge,
in that I had won from him (on the plain of windy Ilion) the armour
of glorious Akhilleys. And great-hearted Hektor, son of King Priam,
took up the cause of his wasted brother Paris, claiming the right of
fighting against me because of the ruin which I worked on his house and
city by my wile of the Wooden Horse.
But shady Hades sniggered, saying: “Not one of these three champions,
who hold my honour so dear, shall be disappointed. Wherefore, fight
each of you in turn; and let King Theseys fight first. And, if so be
that no Odysseys is left in life to fight loud-bellowing Aias and great
Hektor in turn, then, indeed, the blame will not be mine.”
But Queen Persephone cried: “Now would it be foul shame to pit a single
man, even though he be King Odysseys whom they call Peer of Zeys in
Counsel, against three heroes so justly famous in battle, princes
renowned throughout all time. Wherefore I, the queen, call for two
heroes to fight side by side with King Odysseys, upholding the honour
of Queen Persephone protecting him.”
And, almost before the goddess had ceased from speaking, and, while
King Hades was yet frowning in perplexity, Argive Diomedes the
well-thewed son of King Tydeys cried: “I will fight cheerfully for the
honour of Queen Persephone, and for my ancient friendship with King
Odysseys, with whom, by night, I attacked the hardy Thrakians who wear
their red hair bunched on the crown of their heads.”
Then, indeed, the mind in my breast rejoiced: for I knew that, with
my old comrade Diomedes (a mighty man of war) by my side, many
very virtuous and proper deeds would be done against the hostile
champions. But, while I wondered who would be my other sword-fellow and
shield-friend, the voice of great-hearted implacable Akhilleys declared
that his god-forged armour might in no wise go into battle, he being
present, unless he himself fought by its wearer’s side. But I knew then
that I should not tarry long among the ghosts.
King Hades preened himself at the prospect of bloody war; and, seeing
three sons of kings ready to contend with three sons of kings, he made
no more ado, but began to embody the shades of these five heroes,
furnishing them with bodies and limbs and arms and armour such as they
had used in their very prime, when (living) they stamped on the earth
the giver of grain.
Now it is not to be thought that I, when I saw such notable magic being
done before my eyes, could (or would) refrain from offering also a
specimen of my own proficiency. But I determined at once to let King
Hades see how great a mage he had been minded to treat thus bitterly,
and (at the same time) to comfort my friends and to secure respectful
opinions from the inhabitants of the netherworld there present in
innumerable multitudes.
Wherefore, seeing the ghosts of those five heroes becoming clothed
with live flesh and about to be armed by their proper squires, I nobly
refused the service of the Great Twins, star-crowned, when they would
have prepared me for the fray. And the eyes of all, from highest to
lowest instantly became fixed upon me. But I stood still, summoning
certain forces within me, and silently saying the _Spell_ called _The
Summons which must be Answered_.
And, forthwith, Thalos my foot-boy (whose life was bound to mine)
came from the misty meadows of asphodel, where he and Neandros and my
silver chariot were waiting for me. Fearlessly he came, entering the
judgment-hall of Hades, thinking of naught but his duty to his lord.
And it was very strange to see a mere boy, mortal, but alive and very
healthy, wearing his usual sandals and short mantle, running toward me
through so vast a throng of naked shades. But the dead all made way
for him, being beaten back and most dreadfully worried: for he was (as
I was) immune against death by reason of my magic and also by reason
of the grace of his own luminous innocence. And, having come to me, he
went over the clasps of my armour in the usual manner, saying nothing.
But, when he had done his service, he went (at my command) and crouched
by the feet of long-robed Helen.
Then, again, I called, calling (this time) as Master.
And forthwith there came in Delphic Phoibos Apollon as Knight of the
Sun, and Arkadian Hermes as Knight of East and West and North and
South, and lordly Ares as Knight of Kadosh, and Lemnian Hephaistos
as Knight of the Brazen Serpent, and Theban Herakles (who, they
say, changed wives with Zeys) as Knight of the Sword of the East,
all gloriously triumphant, and, also, beardless Dionysos as Noahite
Patriarch, and pale Death and dusky Sleep as Princes of Mercy, and
immortal Eros as Prince of the Royal Secret, each one giving me the
greeting of his own degree. But to them I responded as Master. They
seated themselves on the bench with the judges Aiakos, Minos, and
Rhadamanthos. And I remember how that the shade of accursed Thersites,
humpty-backed, blameless, took a mind-grieving toss from lordly Ares,
having presumed (as his wont was) to thrust himself unbidden into the
pews of his betters. And inextinguishable laughter arose among the
shades, when they saw the staggering unhappiness of that chatterbox
Thersites.
But, when all was ready, I took my place, having kissed the still brow
of Golden Helen. But the touch of the goddess, though her mien was
strange and unresponsive, put strength into my shoulders and knees, and
placed in my breast the boldness of a fly, which persists in biting,
although often driven away by a mortal man whose blood is its most
delicate sweetmeat. For I burned with an insatiable desire for slaying,
nor to surcease therefrom till all were gone who stood between me and
Golden Helen. For I was in face of her, for pious reasons.
Thus, indeed, were the champions placed: at my side, I had
great-hearted Akhilleys on my left, and well-thewed Diomedes on the
right: but at the other side, renowned Theseys faced me, and keen
Hektor faced Akhilleys, and sacrilegious Aias faced Diomedes. And we
were to fight with spears and swords. But my wily revolver was ready to
my hand; and long-robed Helen held my black bow, which sang of war and
the slaughter of heroes till King Hades gave signal for the onset.
Theseys thrust his spear straight at my best eyelid, terribly shouting:
but I raised my shining shield like a flash of white thunder, taking
his point full on the god-made boss of it. And the heavenly silver rang
true as a bell. But I, stooping, drove up with my own spear, which he
(also) took on his shield. But, so mightily had I thrust it, that
the head stuck fast in the metal: nor could I tear it again from the
grip of his shield. He, then, noisily swang his targe aside, snatching
away my weapon. But I dashed in, battering him with my own shield,
till he was beaten to his knee. And, while he recollected himself, I
drew my sword and lopped off his spear-head, pressing hard with my
shield against his, and hewing at his head. But he, cunning, took my
strokes on his well-crested helmet, while he fumbled for his sword.
Nevertheless, his head must have hummed, for sparks fell thickly on all
sides from every blow, as they fall from a red-hot horse-shoe smitten
upon an anvil in a winter’s night. And, when once more we were equally
armed, we fell to fighting very seriously; and, for a time, neither of
us gained an advantage.
But, suddenly, I heard a great sob on my right hand. For well-thewed
Diomedes crashed to the ground; and all the netherworld shook at his
fall, as a citadel shakes when thumped by a battering-ram. And, at the
same time, Aias son of Telamon leaped upon me, masked in blood, and
bellowing like a hamstrung bull.
Now, hitherto, notwithstanding the gravity of our combat, neither I nor
Theseys had let blood. But, when I saw scarlet Aias coming ravening
upon me, and, when I sniffed the delicious odour of a hero’s blood,
then, indeed, I accomplished a certain wile. For I feinted downward,
to draw the sword of Aias; and, lightening my guard before his eye
(half-dimmed with streaming gore) could follow, I lunged upward,
plunging my blade like an onion into the bellowing mouth of him, where
a wound is particularly painful to a miserable mortal; and awfully my
hilt thudded on the bones behind his face, passing right through his
head under the brain and bruising the white bones at the back. And his
teeth were shivered to splinters; and his two eyes gushed with gore,
which he (gaping) made violently to spout also with a bubbling noise
from his mouth and from both his ears and nostrils, drenching me with
five purple fountains. But his knees relaxed; and he sat down suddenly
backward, stretching out his two hands; and Death enveloped him in a
pale cloud. In this manner, I lost my sword as well as my spear, being
too much occupied to retrieve it from the badly-wrecked face of Aias.
And now one would have said that I was at the mercy of my own enemy:
for Theseys all the time did not omit to hack at my head. But I caught
his strokes on my shield till it was split in twain, and then upon my
crested helmet studded with adamantine crystals and blue moonstones;
and his blows were like the blows of a poleaxe wielded by a blooming
butcher, or of a sledge-hammer wielded by a lusty smith. But, because I
was unarmed and liable to reel giddily under the hero’s onslaught, my
noble mind contrived a new wile. And, diving upward under his shield
(lest he should wound me in the back), I caught him round the ribs with
my long arms, and began to crumple him up. He, indeed, having dropped
his shield, smote once on my back: but it was only a half-cut, for my
shoulder filled the sweet pit of his sword-arm, preventing him from
giving either force or weight unto his effort. Meanwhile, I splintered
his crackling ribs one by one, pinching him as ferociously as possible,
and wrenching him hither and thither, with a heart full of pure joy,
when I felt so renowned a hero as Theseys becoming like a broken basket
of entrails in my arms. He, indeed, tried to stab me with his bitter
steel, in the intervals when he was neither screeching nor gasping for
breath with much hiccoughing. And, anon, having heaved him high above
my head, (for he tired me), then I dashed him to the ground, snapping
his big backbone with a noise like the quick tearing of linen. But
he lapsed limply into a shapeless bundle of broken man; and his last
breath shot out with a wet squeak, moistly whistling; and renowned
Theseys was once more a shade.
But I sidled away from the carcase, looking toward my left hand, where
the two great heroes and masters of perfect swordsmanship were fighting
valiantly. And crest-tossing Hektor feigned to slip, half exposing
his head: but implacable Akhilleys, for the nonce unwary, brandished
his blade for a last terrific blow which should end the battle. But
him Hektor overcame, eluding the shield which swang away to the left,
and thrusting his own sword through the taslets of the breast-plate
deep into the beautiful groin. Nevertheless, the end was not yet. For
fierce Akhilleys, though wounded to death, finished the stroke which
he had begun. And his sword came down irresistibly on Hektor’s crested
helm; and the horse-hair floated away on this side and on that; and the
whole casque fell in two halves here and there, like the split shells
of a walnut; and the head within, being divided in twain right down
to the roots of the throat, flapped upon the shoulders like a halved
pomegranate on a sliced stem. In this manner, fell together the two
greatest warriors and the two most glorious heroes who ever stamped on
the wide-bosomed earth.
But all voices were hushed at the splendour of the sight, grieving that
the five famous sons of kings should so soon have ceased from sweet
life, again becoming shades. And I, also, stood in silence: for I was
still rather dizzy. But, all at once, shady Hades shouted from his
throne: “This much-contriving Odysseys again hath tricked us by some
magic wile. Ha, Titans, hold him!”
And, on the word, the enormous monsters lumbered in my direction. But
all the shades began to gibber like bats, moaning with fear; and the
shade of great-hearted Akhilleys became paler with horror, because of
King Hades’ treachery. But Thalos, my foot-boy, lithely leaped from
crouching at the feet of Golden Helen; and, having snatched my black
bow from her (but she gave it willingly), he thrust it into my hand,
standing alertly close behind me with my quiver, ready to feed me with
arrows. And, in an instant, I bent the great bow to the string, while
it sang shrilly with joy, loosing the well-feathered shafts which
swiftly hissed down the long hall; and they bit the eyeballs of the
titans so that they yelped like whipped whelps in their displeasure,
falling as great oaks crash earthward in storms, littering considerable
areas.
But, as I sped the winged deaths on their way, I heard a terrible cry
from the queen. But I, without turning round to her, was suddenly
aware that I was seeing on all sides, both before and behind: for the
eyes in my face, fearfully rolling, gazed in front; and, when I drew
the string of the bent-back bow to my ear with my right hand, the two
eye-chalcedonyxes in the magic ring which Hermes, my grandsire, had
placed on my third finger looked out over my shoulder in the rear,
warning me of danger from that quarter. And I saw shady King Hades, the
most righteous of gods, about to dash out my brain with the gigantic
key which fits the locks of hell.
But, leaping aside, I evaded the blameless coward’s blow: but, in
escaping from the god, I became far away from Thalos who bore my
arrows; and my bow shrieked because I could not use it. Once more,
King Hades struck at me; and, once more mightily leaping, I eluded
the danger. Moreover, I saw, from the bewildered gestures of the
shades, that they understood neither what was going on nor the reason
of my marvellous agility. And, then, I perceived that the shady one
had donned his cyclopean helmet of invisibility, whereby none but a
god’s eyes could see him. But I, being hard pressed, determined to use
magic of another kind, such as I had found very efficacious against
shady hustlers and bullies when I was a subject of Victory queen of
the stalwart stately Anglicans. And, first, I praised rustic Pan and
wing-footed Hermes, with wildly joyful acclamations: the one for his
gift in the touch of fennel on the seashore by Tainaron, whereby I was
able to see with the eyes of a god as well as with the eyes of a man,
and the other (my grandsire) for his gift of two eyes more than the
number allotted to olympians, to say nothing of miserable mortals: for,
without these extraordinary faculties, shady Hades would certainly have
gotten me again, and for good, and I should have lost Golden Helen for
the third and last time.
Wherefore, I plucked out my revolver, as blameless Hades came upon me.
He, indeed, had the air of being dreadfully worried, believing himself
to be invisible, and yet finding that I was able to dodge him quite
successfully. And, having pressed the well-made spring of my weapon
with my palm, I pulled the beautiful trigger six times, afflicting the
Shady One with a dumdum[49] in each nostril and two in the belly and
one in each knee. But he, being a god, was unable to die, even though
he had lost his ugly face: but all the same, he was extremely capable
of feeling pain; and dreadful pain he felt. Now, as everyone knows,
when lordly Ares was wounded by well-thewed Diomedes at the siege of
windy Ilion, he hullabalooed (as it is chanted in the canticle) like an
army of ten thousand men all mad-drunk with beer. But, King Hades being
of the elder generation of the gods, and (therefore) of far vaster bulk
than his lusty nephew, the bellowing of nineteen such armies would
have been (to the outpouring of his godly griefs and pains) but as the
wheezy puling of an infant to the thunder of immeasurable Ocean on a
rock-bound coast. For, indeed, the very firmament of the netherworld
was riven and cleft asunder by the thuds of his high-stepped capers and
contortions, and the bombilation of his vibrant vociferatings to my
address.
But I, looking upward through the grateful fissure, saw clear heaven
again, and the serenely-sailing Moon, and the glittering constellation
of the Crab, and all the holy stars which kindly gaze upon
earth-trampling men.
After this manner, did I work notable wiles in the house of blameless
Hades.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] This might, perhaps, almost strike some persons as being just a
little “thin.” A. H.
[49] I find several English words in this papyrus, written in what we
will agree to call Mr. C.’s own hand. A. H.
THE TWENTY-FIRST PAPYRUS
Then, the gods, divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces, whom I had
summoned to see how a master-mage under-goes that he may overcome,
intervened to protect me from further annoyance. For unspeakable
confusion buzzed and boomed throughout all the house of Hades.
For the shades of well-born Theseys and of sandy-haired old Menelaos
and of woman-mad Paris were gibbering with rage, seeing that I was free
to depart with Golden Helen, the Treasure of Hades, as my spoil. And
they shook their angry fingers at me, like fringes in a wind, being
quite impotent: but Paris, unable to contain what there was of himself
(so abounding was his ire), burst, over and over again, like a bad
bubble in my vicinity. And he suddenly frittered away.
But, as I walked with the blessed gods, having Helen the Treasure
of Hades beside me, we went to and fro, walking delicately over the
monstrous wrigglings of titans, victims of my bow, as men pick their
way among earthquakes, lightly leaping hither and thither. But the mind
in my breast was contriving new wiles.
Then said Delphic Phoibos Apollon, the Knight of the Sun: “We have
tarried long enough in the kingdom of twilight; and I yearn to go back
to blazing noon. Return with us, O Master of Wisdom; and be sure of
olympian welcomes.”
Then said Arkadian Hermes Psykhopompos, the Knight of East and West
and North and South: “Never yet have I led articulately-speaking men
out of this place: but rather my business is to bring them hither when
they are dead. But very gladly will I bear thee and thine away with
swift-winged feet, O Master my child. Return, therefore, with us; and
be sure of olympian welcomes.”
Then said Lemnian Hephaistos, the Knight of the Brazen Serpent: “There
be many dints and notches in thy silver-shining armour, and many of thy
lovely rock-crystals and blue moonstones have been shattered in battle,
and what shall we say of thy nodding crest of the prides of nine white
peacocks. But, indeed, my fingers itch to have thee in my smithy where
I may restore thee. Return, therefore, with us, O Master of Arms; and
be sure of olympian welcomes.”
And, in like manner, all the divine ones spoke, very affably.
But white Death and black Sleep, being young, stood modestly aside:
for the general rule is that the last may not come to man without an
invitation, and that the first may come only at a particular time.
And that time for me had not even been discussed by the authorities.
For which cause, the pale god moved away, going about more pressing
business: but the dark one lingered, lifting his horn of dust to tempt
me. But, though I was not unwilling to receive the kindly gift of
Sleep, the mind in my noble breast reminded me that many things still
remained for me to do. Wherefore I addressed unwinged words to the
blessed gods, saying: “Gladly, O divine ones, will I escape from this
nasty neighbourhood, and gladly will I visit the height of Olympos,
bringing with me Helen the Treasure of Hades, and Love, the Crown of
All Wisdom.”
Thus I spoke, as we came forth from the hall into the misty
meadows of Asphodel. But, behind us in the House of Hades, we left
incalculable pudder and turmoil. For, beside the roars of the wounded,
the innumerable shades of all the dead since Cain slew Abel,[50]
being worried with pique and jealousy, were pouring themselves out
helter-skelter, snuffling in clusters, whimpering and maudling and
mumbling, waving themselves all over the place like streamers of
seaweed, all in a most embarrassing manner. And it seemed as though my
passage would be impeded by them, as by inextricable mazes of cobwebs.
Wherefore, I (to make an end) summoned Thalos, nimbly loaded with my
gear by him collected and skipping after me; and of him I inquired
whereabouts might be my silver chariot. Who answered me, saying that
my squire Neandros was not ceasing from driving about the asphodeline
meadows, being unseen, and keeping alert for my call: yet he knew not
precisely where the chariot might be at the moment. And he mentioned
his opinion that Neandros would be glad of a meal, not because he
was dying of hunger as another youth would have died, famished (for
his life was bound to my life, so that he lived while I lived), but
just because it was the custom of mortals to eat at intervals. And
inextinguishable laughter arose among the immortal gods when they heard
the apt speech of my foot-boy.
Then, the Great Twins, impatient of delay, moved to the other side
of their golden sister, as though to protect her from the mobs of
gibbering shades: but I, on my part, uttered the _Spell_ called
_The Call Which Must Be Answered_; and, instantly, Neandros drove
my silver-shining chariot toward us out of the imperscrutable mist.
But the gods, when they saw that I was furnished with so suitable a
vehicle with its equipage of four mad stallions of the divine breed of
Laomedon, departed, flying up earthward through the riven roof of the
netherworld, and thence onward to the height of Olympos. Thus the gods
themselves were my heralds.
But I placed Golden Helen (divine one of the goddesses) beside Neandros
in the chariot; and, when Thalos had mounted in the rear placing his
beautiful bundle on the silver floor, I, also, was about to ascend to
my place: but a very fearful occurrence delayed me. For the shade of
woman-mad Paris, partly embodied again, darted toward us out of the
mist; and his sufficiently-solid hand had been armed by shady Hades
with the sword of dead Hektor his brother. Now had I been blameless
Hades in these circumstances, I would have embodied the shade of
Hektor and employed him as my assassin rather than the feeble and
fatuous Paris: but Hades was not at all wily. And the woman-mad one
ran, gibbering frightfully, leering like a lunatic who after long
seeking has found; and he, squealing (for his throat was not quite
firmly finished), slashed as he passed with his blade at my harness, so
that the snow-white leathern thongs were divided, and the reins fell
severed from the hands of my charioteer. But the horses went madder,
bounding upward; and careered (trace-free) to their native pastures in
the rolling heavens, leaving us half-blinded by their hoof-sparks and
(so to speak) fixed immoveably below. And, every moment, the mobs of
malignant ghosts surrounding us became more impertinently menacing.
But I, having won the Crown of All Wisdom (which is Love), and the
Treasure of Hades (which is Golden Helen), and being unwilling to
forego the enjoyment of my beautiful spoils, and remembering the word
which Hermes had said by my altar on black Tanairon, lifted up my voice
very loudly indeed, uttering the most mighty but two of all spells.
And thus I said: “Hear, O oldest and youngest of all the blessed gods,
sweet one, sly one, dire one, winged one, blind one, arch-archer, lord
of unquenchable flame, thou who art somewhere in the rich state of
heaven or on the grain-giving earth, for thou everywhere canst see and
hear a man in affliction, hear now, and aid me in my need. Come, Love,
come.”
And, instantly, through the gigantic fissure yawning overhead, came
the sound of merry childish laughter. And Divine Eros dived out of the
darkness like a flash of ruddy lightning, folding his white wings to
stand before us, lifting the bandage from his sparkling eyes to warm
us with their radiance. And we, who had been shivering with ghostly
cold and bound to the soil of hell a moment before, felt all our
limbs a-thrill with life and joy and in our hearts a splendour at the
coming of the bird of the gods. For he, indeed, was a very large and
lovely boy, slim, and rounded, and so ruddy that his form had scarce
been known within a fiery furnace of clear flame: but, when we saw
the freedom with which he flung abroad his sprightly limbs, and his
quick incessant movements, it was clear that he could have no rival
in energy or strength. And, while we gazed, he was darting here and
there, peering into my silver chariot’s secret parts, having pulled
out the pole and cast it away for inquisitive ghosts to sniff at and
mumble. And even I stood amazed: for, notwithstanding my magic, I had
not suspected that such marvels could be as those which Love laid
bare. For, here, he pressed certain beautiful knops carven on the
panels; and, forthwith, lids opened in the silver floor, whereunto
he wept copious torrents of wet tears, because of foolish men; and,
having closed the lids, he shewed us his ruddy young face wreathed
with laughter. And, there, he ran his fingers over the bosses of other
silver panels inlaid with crabs and moons in mother-of-pearl; and other
lids opened; and a fragrance as of smooth oil was wafted in the air.
But all this, and very much more, was done in a moment of time.
And Love urgently charged us to mount to our places: but he was
sprawling on his supple back, underneath, between the well-carved
wheels, and belching streams of heavenly fire from his rose-red lips.
But we four mounted, and clung to the rail: for the mighty chariot
was beginning to hum and pulsate like a creature having life, so that
(though I was not afraid, but rather exultant with joy unspeakable), I
made the _Sign of Safety_ from height to depth and from here to there,
which is the test and the touchstone and the palladium of all white
magic.
But the immortal god arose, sweeping the air once with his great white
wings; and he swooped upward, diving into the very image of himself,
larger than life, blindfolded, naked, most alluringly proportioned,
which stood poised on the front of the rail, winged, and ready to fly.
And the whiteness and ruddiness of Eros totally disappeared in the
silver image of him, nor was the silver any longer hard and still, like
silver, but smooth and firm and supple as young flesh, being alive in
very fact and altogether godlike in potency.
And the silver Love hooted aloud in mockery of the gibbering shades;
and he swept back the air with his winged arms, as a strong swimmer
slipping through the wavelets of the innumerable laughter of the
ocean,[51] setting all mortal means at naught, needing neither oar
nor sail saving his wings, winnowing the winds with those eternal
plumes.[52] And the wheels of the chariot whirred astonishingly with
the swiftness of our flight toward the fissure in the firmament of
hell. But I, looking downward at the fearful ghosts, saw Kastor and
Polydeykes catching treacherous Paris by hair and heels and slinging
him into fiery Pyriphthlegethon. Awfully scorched was what there was
of him when he scrambled out; and the Great Twins left him licking his
burns on the bank: but they went back to the house of Hades, to serve
the rest of that day in the netherworld for a religious reason, such
being their immutable doom.
But the living silver Love bore us upward out of darkness. But I looked
upon the walls of the vast chasm as we passed them by; and I saw the
depths of rich earth’s bosom all laid bare. Here, were pockets full
of white gold or korinthic bronze which is platinum[53] and of gold
and of silver and of copper, and of iron, and of gleaming tin. There,
were mounds of marble and porphyry and granite. Here, were rivers of
chalcedonyx and jasper, and streams of rose-quartz and violet amethyst
and rock-crystal and blue moonstone and mysterious green-and-purple
alexandrolith. There, were caverns full of buried and forgotten
treasures. And, scattered everywhere, like the stars upon the floor of
heaven, were very precious stones, in clots, or alone in glittering
glory. But, above all these, we passed the pregnant soil of earth the
cupboard of mortals, pierced in every direction by the juicy roots of
herbs and trees.
I turned my gaze to my dear companions. The stalwart Neandros clung to
the rail at the back; and his bold eyes stirred not from the god who
had deposed him from his place as charioteer, for he was meditating an
unmentioned and unthought-of work, which I will narrate at a suitable
time. Thalos crouched on his hams on the floor, clinging with one arm
to the straight legs of Neandros, but his other arm steadied the bundle
of my gear. And, by my side, stood long-robed Helen, the divine one of
goddesses. She was as purely white as the kernel of a nut; and her hair
floated behind like a web of woven sunbeams. One gleaming arm round me,
and the other on the rail near the feet of the silver Love, held her
still. Her head was quiet and happy on my breast. Silent were her lips
of coral. Eloquent beyond mortal words were her amber eyes: wherein
gazing at my ease, I read of her pride, her meekness, her power, her
weakness, her fidelity, her faith, her wisdom, her generosity, her
pure unsullied soul, her worship, and her love. What she read in mine,
I also know; and, that we two know it, is enough.
We were ascending from twilight to daylight. Not for nothing had those
other divine ones gone before, announcing our coming: for the whole
world was set agog to behold us. Heavenly breezes rustled down the
shaft to refresh us with their clean breath. Little rills of sparkling
water trickled over the cleft earth’s lips in haste to greet us. And
the forests bowed their green heads, like a canopy, above us flashing
through the reft rock, as we reached the kindly-smiling earth once more.
In this pomp, I came triumphantly a third time out of the netherworld,
with the Treasure of Hades and the Crown of All Wisdom. And Love
himself was my charioteer.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] This is, or might very well be taken to be, an excessively nasty
one in the eye for the obsolete delusion once called “Modernism.” A. H.
[51] This ΑΝΡΗΙΘΜΟΝ ΓΕΛΑϹΜΑ is certainly a tag. A. H.
[52] It is hardly conceivable that Dante Alighieri can have lifted
these delicious phrases from Mr. C. The whole question is extremely
perplexing. A. H.
[53] Oh, really! But this is a little more definite in its dogmatism.
A. H.
THE TWENTY-SECOND PAPYRUS
But, when we had come to the beautiful plains of earth, there were
spread before our feet (for us to walk upon) pleasaunces of emerald
grass studded with jewels of daisies and bluebells and daffodils and
buttercups and cyclamen, with swathes of poppies, and with splashes
of pure gold crocus dropped straight down from the radiant sun.
Then, indeed, I (as a mortal man) found a fit time when I might give
way to human weakness: for a man who does godlike deeds must pay a
price. And, because my head swam with weariness, and because every
part of me ached from my sunned skin to my white bones, and because
every sense of me was sickened by the slime and corrupt blood of
hellish menials wherewith I was crusted from crest to sandals, then,
I longed to be visited by barbers and clean slaves, and, also, I had
a keen remembrance of the willing and alluring look which the young
god with the horn of eye-closing dust had shot at me by shady Hades’
hall, seeming to ask for an invitation. But I thought on these things
particularly, as (with Golden Helen) I paced a soft meadow bloomed of
violets and parsley, breathing the sweet air.
And Golden Helen perceived how it was with me: for two (who love)
are one. Beside, being a woman, she needed but a single service from
me, to wit, that I should never leave untold the never-to-be-outworn
story of my love for her; and that (to me) was no toil, but a pleasure
perennial. And, for the rest, she (the one woman of women and the
divine one of goddesses) had no other joy than that of caring for
her lover. Wherefore, she sat down on a thymy bank in the shade of
a may-bush: but I reclined by her side. Thus, we rested, during a
little while, watching the slaves beginning to clear my chariot and
my gear: for a cheerful brook ran by the place, sparing enough water
for their work, but not enough for the cleansing of a man as well.
But I intended, after resting, to seek a site apart, for my own
embellishment. And, while these things were being done, a remarkable
portent and a signal favour of a god were manifested, which I will at
once narrate.
For, when we emerged from the fissure in the earth whereby we evacuated
the abysm, it clapped-to behind us, just as did that other gulph which
formerly yawned for showy Curtius in the forum of Rome.[54] And the
living silver Love, my charioteer, folded his wings, while we paused
to breathe the upper air. But when we sat down to rest upon the thymy
bank, his clear young voice, with a shout of laughter, called us by
name. But we, starting, looked toward the sound; and the silver Love,
poised all alive on the front of the chariot, bade us to come near and
observe him closely. Thus we did; and the large volatile boy turned
on his hips, spreading his quivering wings to balance himself; and he
shewed us (and we perceived it) that he was girded about the reins
with a fine silver chain, the two taslets whereof dangled down behind
him as far as the rail of the chariot. And thus he chirruped: “Lady of
Love, and Lord of the Lady of Love, give me leave to make other lovers
happy in the intervals. But call me to serve you when you will, pulling
the chain this way or that, having enslaved me and bound me to you by
unbreakable fetters at present unseen.”
And, with the word, the god returned to his position, poising himself
as before with wide-spread wings. But he came (a large boy’s form of
flesh, ruddy and white as roses, slender and splendidly rounded), out
of the silver leaving his image behind him. And, leaping free with
far-flung limbs and strongly-waving arms, he stretched himself out at
length, swimming in the higher air out of our sight.
But my head began to whirl faster and faster. I saw Neandros and Thalos
arising after they had adored the blooming god, and I felt that Golden
Helen was conducting me again to the thymy bank. And, coming nearer, I
heard the sweet sound of a syrinx of pipes, and the bushes rustled as
though some divine one were approaching. But, instantly, the divine of
goddesses cried out, saying: “Oh Pan! O obliging Pan!”
But the country-god pushed aside the branches, peering at us from the
screen of green leaves, being shy in the quivering sunshine of noon.
And, when he saw who we were, he came forth and greeted us; and he led
us through the may-bushes to a little grove, on the bank of a deep
stream, with a waterfall and a pool, and mossy-soft couches of moly in
the shade, all of which (I believe) he invented at the moment. And,
having gathered handfuls of the herb All-heal, knowing Pan eased me of
my dinted armour: but fair Helen bathed me, and she bound the magic
herb on my bruised and weary limbs. Then, indeed, I summoned benign
Sleep, while Pan piped me a simple rustic ballad very soothing to the
mind.
And there, in the grove, we rested during several days. For I contrived
a new wile, which was that I would not hurry on my journey to lofty
Olympos, but rather delay a little: for an unwilling guest has the
greater honour. Moreover, I did not wish to appear before the blessed
gods in a squalid or a sordid guise, but rather as a personage more
accustomed to giving than to receiving, since I was actually a
suppliant to great Zeys for the hand of his daughter; and it is the
custom of gods and men to give the best gifts to well-seeming mortals.
For which causes, I took my fill of rest, so that my strength returned,
while my slaves (in the neighbouring glade) polished my arms and my
chariot as best they might, to make a respectable appearance. For magic
is waived before Pan, and men must depend entirely on their natural
powers in his presence unless the god himself suggests otherwise.
But, by chance, Hermes (my grandsire), passing by on a message, espied
us one day; and he stayed his flight while he spoke with us. He said
that there was much talk on the height of Olympos, because of our
absence, and because the divine ones (witnesses of my acts in the house
of shady Hades) had entered into a compact one with another to keep
silence on those matters, so that the whole areiopagos of heaven might
hear them (if I so willed) from my own mouth. Which was a very pleasant
hearing for me; and, indeed, I thought it extremely nice and delicate
on the part of the gods. But I answered Hermes meekly enough, saying
that it was not for me, a mortal, to enter heavenly dominions in a
manner unworthy of my grandsire. And my wile proved to be an excellent
one. For Hermes, having had a word with kindly Pan, fled (swift-footed)
away, presently returning with slow-footed Hephaistos and a portable
smithy. For Hephaistos, being proud of the armour which he made for the
son of silver-footed Thetis, was unwilling that the hands of slaves
should renew its splendour. But when his forge was set up, in the
neighbouring glade, the divine artificer (out of admiration for me)
deigned to employ Neandros and Thalos as his assistants instead of a
parcel of kyklops of immoderate unsightliness: more, also, he let them
learn several very important tricks of his trade, when he observed
that they were intelligent workmen of ingenious and reverend mind.
Such mortals, as a matter of fact, do the gods usually select, when
imparting knowledge of the arts.
Thus, then, we passed the time, living on cheeses and nuts and
blackberries and dandelions with the luscious milk of incontinent goats
of amiable demeanour, while I continued to repose myself, cared-for
by the divine one of goddesses and cheered by old Pan. He, indeed,
entertained me vastly with stories of the youth of the world, when
Great Zeys lay hid in Krete and the older gods were yet unborn; and,
at other times, he attuned his reedy pipes intonating quaint songs of
the woodlands. And once, while long-robed Helen slept in the heat of
the day, the knowing old god persuaded some dryads to come out of the
oak-trees in the grove to fan away the flies when I was dozing: but he
himself sat among the reeds not far away, chatting with the cheerful
little brown and silver river. They were very slim young girls (these
dryads), with flesh as white as an acorn-kernel, with long smooth
hair of the colour of oak-bark, and shy green eyes of the colour of
oak-leaves, and excessively modest and timid of disposition. But, when
fair Helen awakened from sleep, and spied the industrious little
creatures, her sweet face flushed like rosy dawn, and she frightened
the shy nymphs quite away by her bleak mode of thanking them for
their care of me. Nor was I puffed with vanity: for I am not the only
complacent mortal who has been an occasion of jealousy to a goddess.
But, at another time, while sweet Helen was washing her robes in the
pool, rustic Pan took leave to inform me (as a friend) of her history
during the previous ten centuries. And I will say that Pan was the
only one of all the blessed gods who did not ascribe my own stories
about myself, and about my future life in the kingdom of Victory queen
of the stalwart stately Anglicans, to some one or other of my usual
altogether-unexpected wiles. But Pan knows all. And he told me how that
(when I fell dead in my former chariot, from the arrow of unknowing
Telegonos), my son and that awful goddess Kirke’s, in Egypt, more than
a thousand years before, then, the divine one of goddesses, Helen, had
behaved very queerly indeed: for she shewed as much grief as though
she herself had caused my demise. Pan said that many persons called
her grief remorse: which is absurd. But, having vowed herself anyhow
to my memory, she prepared to wander through time, mourning, until my
coming again. And heroes and kings’ sons without number sought her in
marriage: whom having scorned fearfully (as far as so gentle a creature
could scorn), she retired to find commodious seclusion on lofty
Olympos. But, there, a certain Kyknos, a son (they say) of far-darting
Phoibos Apollon, persuaded that god to demand her for him from Great
Zeys. But the father and king of gods and men only confirmed (with a
nod) the maiden’s right of choice. Thereat, blameless Kyknos would
have taken her by force, following the custom of Olympians: but her
brothers, Kastor the tamer of horses and Polydeykes the pugilist, beat
on his nose so very bitterly, that beef-eating Herakles wakened from
slumber adding his shouts to the tumult. Which having been explained to
him, he promptly tossed Kyknos to earth from lofty Olympos, breaking
him. And Phoibos Apollon felt it incumbent upon him to take up the
cause of Kyknos and to be extremely prepotent about it. But Great Zeys,
upset by cow-eyed Hera (most righteous of goddesses), shrouded himself
in black clouds, having decreed that the fragments of broken Kyknos
must stay below to satisfy Golden Helen, and that she (the divine one
of goddesses) must not stay above, being a cause of disorderly conduct
among the young gods. But Phoibos Apollon collected the pieces of
Kyknos, as many as he could find, wherewith he made a new swan (that
lickerish fowl) entirely black.[55] But Golden Helen, debarred from the
height of Olympos, and her honour in peril from hairy men down below,
betook herself further, even to the profundity of the netherworld,
where the gods were austere, and men but senseless shades, phantoms
of men worn out. And there she lived in exile, all for the sake of me,
divested of godlihood, enduring ten centuries of sorrow, the inevitable
penance for the glowing glory of her immortal inmarcesible youth.
But, having heard all these things babbled-of by rustic Pan one day
when we dawdled together (and I could not learn them from fair Helen,
for reasons of modesty), then, indeed, I held a sort of council with
the mind in my noble breast. And I determined that, as far as I was
concerned, she certainly should be rewarded for her grievous pains.
For the best of women wants no more than a little true love; and well
indeed did I know that that man is a blind besotted imbecile who, in
pride or what-not, denies himself the pleasure of making a woman happy
with what she wants, excepting (of course) for a religious reason.
And, furthermore, I was aware that I myself was by way of owing a
clearly-defined duty to the golden one of goddesses, in that I owed a
debt of love to her, not only for her fidelity, or as amends for her
wrongs, but chiefly because she had procured for me several pleasing
and exciting and singular adventures, teaching me how to win the Crown
of All Wisdom. The which debt I determined to pay forthwith.
Thereafter, I spoke not a word of these pious matters: but fair Helen
was not unaware that I knew all that Pan could tell me, not as her
accredited embassador but as the trusty friend of us both. And, when
I suddenly became very eager and insistent for nuptials, she would not
deny me: but she mentioned that a bride ought to be brought from her
paternal home to the house of her husband. Which doctrine I accepted.
And I said that I would contain myself till her case and my case had
been suitably pleaded before very mighty many-named Zeys. That, then,
was to be the object of our visit to the height of Olympos. For it
pleased me better to go thus, on a matter of business, than merely to
arrive, sleek, grinning, and complacent, to receive prizes and praises
for athletic achievements and feats of endurance and wiliness, which,
though most meritorious and praiseworthy, and valuable also, inasmuch
as they gained for me the friendship of several very important gods
(whose friendship is much preferable to their enmity), were, I affirm,
rather to be classed with my ordinary habits than with my virtues.
Anon, cunning Hephaistos restored to me my shining armour of silver
with adornments of rock-crystals and blue moonstones in all its
pristine splendour: but he returned forthwith to Olympian palaces.
Neandros and Thalos also brought my silver chariot, polished in all
its parts with a sheen like the full moon, and its secret recesses
were well-filled with water and oil. But, when we had placed my
gear therein, we said farewell to kindly Pan. And, in the cool of
the evening, I led the divine one of goddesses to her place at the
front: but I mounted by her side; and the slaves climbed up behind.
But fair Helen pulled the fine chain by its taslet; and the whole
chariot vibrated for sheer joy, panting and pulsating like a creature
enjoying sweet life: for, at the same moment, young Eros dived out of
open space, and the silver image of him started into perfervid life,
boiling with force and merrily hooting.[56] But we, leaping forward
with his beating wings, skimmed into distance more swiftly than an owl
in flight. All through the cool night we went at tireless speed: but,
whether over sea or land, I cannot say. For, in good sooth, I was not
aware of anything, save that the moon serene and the flagrant Crab
smiled upon me from the dark-blue sky, that I was no longer dawdling
but active and very strong, that Golden Helen was with me for good and
all, and that Love was my charioteer.
In this manner, I set forth from the silvan grove where goat-footed Pan
had been entertaining me.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] This is valuable. I suppose “formerly” helps to date these papyrè,
at least within a century or so. But Mr. C.’s epithet for Marcus
Curtius strikes me as being a little what I might almost term original.
“Showy” hardly seems the just word for a hero. But, of course, Mr. C.
wrote only a few centuries after the young Roman’s celebrated header,
which perhaps did not seem extraordinarily impressive to contemporary
professionals. Distance does sometimes lend inchantment to the view, I
believe. A. H.
[55] I cannot help citing Juvenal, _Sat._ VI., 165, in this connection:
“_Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno._” A. H.
[56] I cannot help remarking that this sounds rather awfully like
what I might almost venture to term an ante-Christian automobile or
motorcar, with its secret recesses filled with oil and water, its
vibrations, its pantings, its pulsations, _and_ its hooter on the
front. If this conjecture of mine could be clearly substantiated, it
would furnish a fresh exemplification of the adage “Nothing new under
the sun,” I fancy. A. H.
THE TWENTY-THIRD PAPYRUS
But, when rosy-fingered Dawn had donned her saffron robes, arising
from her couch in the ocean to bring light to mortals and immortals,
then, indeed, we were nearing Tainaron, where lay the hollow ship with
the shipmen expecting my coming. And, when they saw us whizzing out
of a dusty cloud like a flash of white thunder (for, on the one side,
the hair of Golden Helen streamed behind us as streams a long ray of
sunbeams in no breeze, and, on the other side, my mantle of silver
tissue lined with white fur and clasped with the Moon and the Crab
in rock-crystals and blue moonstones floated at large and at length
beneath my towering crest of the prides of nine white peacocks), and,
when they saw Neandros and Thalos, mysteriously lost, returning,
and, when they saw the large silver Love very much alive, and, when
they heard the gleeful whoopings of untameable Love and the terrible
whirring of the chariot-wheels, then, indeed, their knees tottered, and
their breath popped out, and their hearts stood quite still for fear,
so that their life left them, and pale Death veiled their eyes.
But we lighted in the middle of the lofty prow, even as a bird lights
on the branch of a blooming tree;[57] and, when fair Helen pulled the
silver chain, instantly ruddy-white Love soared out of his silver image
into the boundless empyrean; and thus we came to the end of our journey
by land.
And now I was in a sort of quandary. For, knowing that I should need
all my strength of mind and body on lofty Olympos, knowing (also) that
rule of magic which says that a man of fluid temper (such as I am) can
best collect a reserve of such strength from the sea, I had determined
to go, by favour of azure-haired Poseidon, in my galley, from Tainaron
in the south, by the Eyboik Gulph, to the small port of Myrai at the
foot of mighty Mount Ossa in the north. But the rest of the journey
would be made more splendidly, in my silver-shining chariot, by land.
But (such is the lot of miserable mortals, who forget to inquire the
length of the life-threads, which the blameless Fates have spun for
their fellows), I found myself, at the very outset of my voyage by
sea, possessed of a huge well-benched ship with all its appurtenances
in perfect order, but encumbered with the corpses of one-and-sixty
mariners suddenly deceased, and a mere toy for the sea-gods. For which
causes, I sat me down on the lofty poop, taking my dear head in my
hands: and I began to contrive most astonishing wiles. But Golden Helen
sat by my side, like a true lover who knows when to speak to her man
and when to hold her peace. But my two slaves waited silently in their
places.
And, at length, it appeared to the mind in my lordly breast that the
gods, divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces, are wont to deal with
mortal men in this manner, shewing them singular favours so that they
may be encouraged to expect (and, even, to insist on) a continuance
of the same. For, as it is with a man, when he can do a certain deed
very well, straightway he desires also to do it very often, for the
benefit of the race of men and for all sorts of other pious and
religious reasons, so, also, indeed, precisely, is it with the blessed
gods, givers of good things. Wherefore, then, seeing that tameless
Love had willingly bound himself (with a silver chain) to serve me
and long-robed Helen, I contrived an altogether unmentioned and
unthought-of magic: so that that ruddy bird of heaven might not have
cause to complain that I let his blooming wings grow rusty with disuse.
Wherefore, I said unwinged words to Neandros and Thalos, explaining
to them what they were to do. But, first, having pitched the dead
mariners overboard to lighten the ship, together we drew in the long
oars, bestowing them tidily as a rampart inside the bulwarks and
fixing them there with well-twisted knots. These things having been
accomplished, and the whole ship having been set in a new order, we
took a spare sail, white and vermilion, silken, with certain cordage,
out of the store. And, when we had ascended the lofty prow, we fastened
the wheels of the silver-shining chariot, fixing it where it stood,
immoveably, in the middle of the prow, so that a man might walk round
and about it if he pleased, then, indeed, we hanged the beautiful sail
over it, and fastened the same to the bulwarks, in the manner of an
awning with vermilion fringes. Thus, the splendour of the chariot was
concealed from the eyes of casual inquisitives: but the silver image of
Love emerged above the awning as a figure-head for my galley: and the
taslets of the silver chain about his reins dangled down inside.
And, all being ready, I (with my slaves) weighed anchor: but Golden
Helen pulled the chain of the silver image. And, instantly, young Love
descended into his image; and the silver Love lived, flying with his
tireless wings; so that the great ship moved most rapidly across the
frightened sea, having neither oars nor other sail. But I governed the
course with the steering-oar; and the divine one of goddesses was near
me.[58]
Now when I came again to hold council with my noble mind, I was aware
that (in winning the Treasure of Hades) I procured for myself such
a companion as I never had had before. In sooth I have had comrades
a many in my various lives; and, among them I will name the most
desirable Red Heart of the southern sea, and the glorious son of
Sycorax, and the unchangeable George of the Roses, and timidly-false
Aubrey, and Hugh the priest devoured by hidden hatred and envy and
prepotence, and blind Karterikos of Bosporos, and loving Vergilio,
and naïve elegant Khekkhi, and also Diomedes of the loud war-cry, and
great-hearted yellow-headed Akhilleys. Now, with a man, a man may
fight, and (at any rate) must quarrel: or there can be no true love,
for love is not proved true until it has been tested by reconciliation
after strife, preferably very bloody. And herein is the difference
between a comrade and a companion.[59] For, with a woman, no man may
dispute: but, if she has an evil mind, he may avoid her or annul her:
but, when the gods, givers of good gifts, send to a man such a woman
as he may fitly take for a companion, then, indeed, he becomes one
with her, in that her ill is his hurt and her good his benefit. For
it is very pleasing to the pride of a man to have a treasure to guard
and to care for. And, until this time, all my wiles and all my wisdom
had not won for me such a treasure. Not but what Queen Penelope had
been a true wife to me while she had life on the earth: but, of those
years there were twenty, when wars and the displeasure of certain
blameless gods kept me away from her, so that (speaking with perfect
respect to her face) I may say that she was a faithful wife and a
most prudent housewife, but not by any means a companion. And, as for
the quite-irrelevant matter of those divine ones of goddesses with
whom I had intimate relations, to wit, deathless Kirke and Kalypso
of the greasy braided tresses, who (I ask) can presume to talk about
companionship when a man is imprisoned, with an awful woman, on a
little islet surrounded by the boundless ruthlessly-smiling sea.
But Golden Helen was altogether different from these three. Thus I
meditated in my Love-sped galley.
But, coming to Khalkis, we stayed there, to procure sweet water and
nutriments, before proceeding northward by the Eyboik Gulph. And
hard-hearted envious Hera, that arch-mischiefmaker among goddesses,
sent me a horrid adventure, in the hope of impeding my progress.
For, while my slave Neandros was negociating with merchants on the
quay, loading the hollow ship with cheeses, and wheat (the marrow of
men), and the flesh of bulls and swine, with herbs and dainty birds,
and jars of oil and wine and beer, and casks of sweet water, I, with
long-robed Helen, landed privately to view the city. For I had heard
that Romans were occupying holy Eyboia at that time, the island of rich
vines, whence Elephenor son of Khalkodon led the proud long-haired
Abantes in forty black ships to the siege of windy Ilion. And, neither
in the future from which (for a religious reason) I had come, nor in
the past from which also I had come, had I ever seen the conquering
Romans in their togas as they lived, excepting once by chance in Khem.
For which cause I determined to use this opportunity of informing my
inquisitive mind.
And we too, therefore, happy as children who have found out a new game,
disguised ourselves before we went to play truant in Khalkis. For fair
Helen covered herself with a dark robe, veiling also her hair like
a web of woven sunbeams: but I did on a tunic of grey wolves’ skins
having on my head a berreta of ferret-skins, taking also a very sharp
sword and a pouch full of silver and gold. And, when we came to the
landward end of the quay, a beak-nosed soldier armed in cheap bronze
stopped us; and he demanded of us diplomas permitting us to draw sweet
breath in Roman territory. For it seemed that the Romans, like locusts,
were infesting the whole earth. I, indeed, began to try to edge in a
wily word about a beverage: but the soldier led me to the guard-house
to settle the matter with his decurion, who, also, was a dull boor
amenable neither to words nor bribes. For I told him that my name
was Ithakides son of Ithakos son of Ptenopedilos son of Kelainephes
Polyonomos, and that I came from Egypt where I had been collecting
antiquities: all of which was perfectly true and entirely misleading,
simply because the lout was ignorant of the various uses of words.
Also I said that the lady was my wife, sister of certain friends of
mine by cognomen Asterostephanoi, who was taking a voyage for the
benefit of her health and to visit her aged father in Thessaly. And
that also was true. But it seemed that the decurion’s duty was only to
ask questions, but not to pay the slightest regard to the answers. And
he would not take a bribe, because (I am sure) no one had ever offered
him such a thing before, and he was dreadfully afraid. But he said
merely that I must go to prison pending an inquiry.
And I, indeed, made no objection, being always greedy for new
experiences, and, moreover, both I and Golden Helen did not restrain
our laughter when we remembered who we were to whom such indignities
were offered. Wherefore, having tucked away my natural ferocity, I was
as meek as a clod: but I watched events with steady eyes. But I told
fair Helen to go to a convent of the priestesses of Pallas Athene near
the market-place, there to wait till I should be dismissed without
a stain upon my character. And, presently, the centurion himself
appeared; and he would escort her thither: for he, indeed, perceived
that we were persons of quality; and he said that, if nothing against
me could be collected by the following day, he would give me a diploma
valuable for all Akhaia. Also, he regretted my detention, assuring
me that he himself was under authority. And, when he came back from
attending the divine one of goddesses, we conversed, until I had
emptied his mind into mine: but that was a pastime, and not a new
labour for Herakles.
And, when Dawn (the mother of morning) was come again, and, when Helios
Hyperion had driven the chariot of the sun to the height of heaven
and was on the downward way toward his bed in the ocean, then, the
Roman centurion (having found out no ill of me) gave me the promised
diploma, setting me at liberty. But I hastened to the convent of the
priestesses of Pallas Athene. But the portress said that the divine
one of goddesses had been summoned to meet me at the palace of the
governour of the province, whither she had gone at noon, with a plump
of spearmen for a guard. To which place I followed her as quickly as
possible; and the mind in my dear breast was full of dire foreboding.
For I remembered certain words which the centurion had let fall in his
cups of the previous night, concerning the sins of Roman governours in
general, who bought their governourships by bribes, expecting to recoup
themselves (for the outlay of a lifetime) by the crimes which a year
of governourship made possible. Also, he had spoken of the governour
of Akhaia in particular, by name Anthemius Cotta, saying that he was a
Nouus Homo of coarse manners and huge wealth accumulated (no one knew
how) in Asia, that he had bought his governourship, being possessed of
a gluttonous appetite for the eels of Lake Kopais, greedily engorging
the same without ceasing excepting to pant occasionally, and, that he
was despised and detested, inasmuch as he cultivated Asiatic vices,
filling his palace with females, slaves, guarded by black eunuchs.
But I found no sentry at the palace-gate, so lax is the rule of a
luxurious governour. An elegant slave in a Persian mitre, however,
mentioned that Anthemius Cotta had finished the business of the day.
And then, indeed, divine Rage inflamed me with the desire of horribly
pinching and mangling; and, staring very starkly, I invaded the place
without more ado. Crowds of feeble persons fell away from me, as I
passed in frightful silence. And, suddenly, I heard the voice of Golden
Helen moaning for me by name.
But I rushed toward the sound, tearing down a curtain, and running
along a painted hall where a meal was spread. At the other end, a
single negro, armed with a monstrous curving scymetar, kept watch
before another curtained door. His grinning head sprang to the right,
and his blood-spouting carcase thudded to the left: but I passed
between, passing to the divine one of goddesses.
She was at the far end of the chamber, back to wall. Two loathsome
rolling-eyed eunuchs lay at her feet, blasted by her amber fires.
But there were others, about to attempt an onslaught. And, before
her, stood the Roman governour, a ceruminous personality, fatty and
pustulous, and of proboscidian flaccidity. Upon whom I wreaked many
most mind-grieving evils, saying nothing. For, first, I impaled him,
thrusting my sword through his right shoulder, and spinning him
(yelling) round by the hilt to face me. Next, having clutched a
handful of his glabrous forehead and a large handful of his cataract of
chins, I tore off his countenance; and threw it away. But he dropped on
his belly, scrabbling the floor with tettered toes and fingers.
But the eunuchs were petrified with terror; and Golden Helen, seeing me
near, was ready to swoon. Her, indeed, I bore (senseless) to a couch;
and bestowed her safely while I finished the business.
The eunuchs had to turn the Roman governour face upward and to spit
by turns into his rolling lidless eyes, while he winced, mewling with
unlipped mouth. I drew my sword from its fat sheath, and flashed it
through the eunuchs’ necks, so that they fell asunder in a heap,
but their heads rolled about the floor. I was minded also to carve
Anthemius Cotta slowly into slices: but my gorge rose somewhat
squeamishly. For which cause, I only cut the sinews of his knees
and elbows, and heaped the carcases of his slaves upon him, having
collected their black heads: but I stuffed his own face into his
mouth. And, being satiated with slaughter, I covered the mound with a
door-curtain, lest the eyes of the goddess should be offended.
But her, I carried into the painted hall; and, having cleansed myself
in several bowls of rosewater, I used the wine (which was there) to
restore her. And anon we left the palace, being of an aspect so godly
and terrific, that the slaves scuffled (cat-like) to hide themselves
as we passed by. But, hastening to the quay, we ascended the hollow
ship, flying away as quickly as possible.
Thus I did, visiting Khalkis, a city on the island of Eyboia.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] I would point out that the “vol plané” here described almost seems
to resemble the showy but somewhat clumsy mode of alterrament affected
by the velivolors and aereoplanes and dirigibles of the Fifth Georgian
Era.
[58] I am given to understand that our own earlier hydroplanes and
hydrovolors had their motors situated amidships and aft respectively.
A. H.
[59] I call attention to the extreme beauty and distinction of this
original and (I sadly fear) little-realized doctrine. A. H.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH PAPYRUS
But, when my galley was in the open water of the Eyboik Gulph, we sat
together upon the lofty poop; and the divine one of goddesses told
me all her adventures. For, Anthemius Cotta, having seen her going
to the convent of priestesses of Pallas Athene, sent her a message
as from me, saying that I was an honoured guest at the palace. And,
when she (suspecting no evil) went thither, the governour offered her
fair words, bribes, and violence, by turn, persuading her to submit
to indignities. But she repulsed him, summoning to her aid the godly
forces (inherited, but long unused), which she possessed as daughter of
Great Zeys Pantokrator. But, sooth to say, the sweet maid was no longer
able to hold her own against fierce-passioned gods or men. Not that she
would ever yield: but ten weary lonely centuries in the netherworld
had weakened her high hereditary forces, so that she needed an ally.
And, now that her peril was averted, she let fall a round tear, like
a frightened child very anxious for a companion and protector. Whom I
reverently consoled, swearing a great oath that I would ever be her
faithful warden.
Now, if I had been alone, nothing would have pleased me more than
going through Akhaia and Makedonia by land, seeking adventures, taking
revenges, stultifying the Roman conquerors by the spells of magic
art. Such, indeed, would have been a very convenient course for a
Mage practising the uses of his arts and crafts, and pleasing enough
for a Master at liberty. But, since so great a god as Love had taught
me, binding himself (with a blooming chain) to serve me, I was aware
that service is as far above liberty as lofty Olympos is above deep
Tartaros: nineteen times nineteen days, indeed, will a brazen anvil
pass in dropping sheer from the one to the other. Wherefore, knowing
how godly a thing it is to be a servant, I also bound myself with the
chain of love.
For, it had been in my mind, even in voyaging by sea, to visit
Opoyntian Lokri, for the sake of Aias the Less, who wore a
linen corslet, and (though a mite of a man) was by far the best
spear-thruster of all the Argives when we besieged windy Ilion. Also, I
would have visited the steep fortress of Dios, north of the Gulph, and
Antron by the seashore, and Pteleon couched in grass in its rock-bound
bay, and rugged Olizon with the sea on both sides of it. But, for the
sake of my timid maid, whom I bade to be comforted, I said that we
would not risk any more insults among the Romans.
For which cause, sped by Love’s wings, we sailed northward, passing
leafy Pelion on the left: but, anon, having come to the small port of
Myrai at the foot of mighty Ossa, there we cast anchor in a secluded
roadstead in the middle of the night. And, uncovering my silver-shining
chariot, we untwisted the knots which bound it to the ship, and
prepared it for a journey on land.
But I left my well-benched galley in charge to Neandros and Thalos,
bidding them to hold it ready for me anywhen, but perhaps after a
long absence. And when we had mounted to our places, the divine one
of goddesses pulled the silver chain; and Love, our charioteer, lived
in his silver image, and flew with wide-swept wings, hooting for joy
because we were beginning the last stage of our journey to lofty
Olympos.
Aurora, mother of morning, rose from her couch in the sea when we
traversed the lovely vale of Tempe, fresh with glittering dew, where
the night-mists rose from Peneys’ diminished flood. Helios Hyperion
lord of light, looked from the zenith at noon when we began to mount
the long slopes which lead to the peak of Olympos. Hesperos, star of
evening, gleamed in the violet sky when we came to the little shrine by
the Holy Well, beyond which no mortal foot has trod.
The priest came out, marvelling that travellers should arrive at that
hour: for most men fear the mountain after nightfall, believing it to
be improper for them to go very near the paths which the gods tread
in their nocturnal journeys. But he marvelled still more, when he saw
what manner of travellers we were, and the silver-shining chariot
pulsating like a creature having sweet life during the first few
moments after long-robed Helen had released our charioteer pulling the
silver chain. But I and the priest led the daughter of Zeys the Swan
to the guest-chamber of the shrine, there to pass the night: for we
were unwilling to approach the abode of the blessed gods, dishevelled
and weary and stained with travel. But, after we had dismissed hunger,
having supped, I indeed went out to pass the night in the open, keeping
a vigil by my silver-shining armour with adornments of rock-crystals
and blue moonstones, and communing with my lordly mind.
And, when the night was waning, and near was the dawn, and the stars
had gone upward, and the night had advanced more than two watches,
but the third watch was still left, then, indeed, I cleansed the
dust from my monstrous chariot, burnishing the silver of it and the
crabs and moons inlaid in lustrous mother-of-pearl, till it shone
like a white flame. But the silver image of Love, larger than life,
blindfolded, naked, most alluringly proportioned, poised on the front
of the rail with his well-winged arms spread abroad in the very act
of taking flight, this, indeed, I treated as a man would treat his
own large ruddy son in a bath if he were a god. For I washed it all
over with a sponge, going firmly into every crevice where dirt might
obscenely lodge; and I dried it delicately with soft linen, polishing
the smooth-gleaming skin and rubbing in soft oil with my hands. And,
opening the secret recesses of the chariot, I poured in fresh water
and oil, so that the well-carved wheels might freely revolve in
courses. But I did also in like manner with my armour, giving it a
radiance as of the serene and vivid moon in springtime. And, having
stripped myself to bathe in the ice-cold limpid water gushing from the
Holy Well (for with pure body and pure mind the wise man approaches
the blessed gods), then, indeed, I put on my glorious armour: first,
the well-shaped greaves for my legs, covered with rock-crystals and
blue moonstones and fitted with clasps: then, the white leathern
kirtle with taslets of silver lapping about my reins, clothing my body
above with my coat of silver mail, and the corslet on my breast and
back and shoulders also of hammered silver plates with adornments of
rock-crystals and blue moonstones. But I suspended from my shoulders
the sword in its silver sheath and the silver quiver of arrows gleaming
with moony gems. But, on my head, I placed the glittering helmet with a
towering crest of the prides of nine white peacocks; and dreadfully the
plume nodded from above. And I shod my feet with the well-made sandals
of white leather, taking the great black singing bow well-fitted to my
hand, and the great and sturdy shield bright as the moon. But I covered
myself with the vast trailing mantle of silver tissue lined with white
fur, clasped with the scintillating signs of the Moon and the Crab. And
the sheen of my splendour reached heaven, when I stood stamping and
gnashing my teeth: nor was I fearful of meeting my peer anywhere, even
in the precincts of the immortals.
But, when golden-throned Dawn arose from her ocean-bed, I led the
divine one of goddesses, fresh and pure as a pearl in a setting of red
gold, to her place in the chariot; and I mounted beside her. But she
pulled the silver chain; and young Love dived headlong out of heaven
into his image; and the silver image lived, sweeping his wide wings,
swimming in the higher air, with triumphant trumpetings and merry
whirring of wheels, toward the wall of cloud which shrouds the city of
the gods, the habitation of Great Zeys.
Thus, brilliantly blazing and swift as a flash of white thunder I
entered lofty Olympos.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH PAPYRUS
The Hora Eirene, warden of the gate, challenged us: whom Golden Helen
answered, giving the password, demanding free passage as a daughter
of Great Zeys. But Hermes, my grandsire, and the Great Twins, and
boldly-steadfast Herakles, stood within the gate ready to greet us.
Moreover, the golden streets were thronged with the beautiful children
of gods and heroes, scattering amaranthine diadems. Thus, we went to
the palace and the areiopagos of the immortals.
But King Zeys, the father of gods and men, sat on his clouded throne,
with Queen Hera of the white arms (the most righteous of goddesses) who
had hundred-eyed peacocks about her. But, on the right and left, were
other thrones inhabited by all the gods and goddesses, whose courtiers
were immortal youths innumerable having limbs of flaming whiteness and
rayed hair. There, was Pan the lord of woodlands, and loose-haired
Iakhos Dionysos the son of fire washed by water-nymphs, and Phoibos
Apollon lord of the silver bow, and Artemis beautiful queen of arrows,
and tameless Pallas Athene of the dark Aigis, and blameless Aphrodite
of the violet crown, and silver-footed Thetis unhappy mother of the
noblest son, and even King Poseidon of loud-roaring white horses: but
shady King Hades (the most righteous of gods) was absent for reasons of
health, and his black throne gaped void. But my heart was leaping for
joy in my dear breast: for I was aware that the fifth prediction, which
innocent Thalos made when he looked into the palm-mirror, was in fact
being realized. For indeed the silver god and the golden goddess were
standing before many gods and goddesses.
But astute Hermes, the yellow-wanded luck-bringer and soul-guide,
signed me with silence. He rose in his place among the glorious
immortals; and began to expound my cause. Thus, then, he spoke: “O
Father and King of gods and men, before this conclave of divine ones
stands the steadfast goodly Odysseys, the much-enduring contriver of
innumerable wiles, who claims as a sweet guest-gift the hand of Golden
Helen, the exiled daughter of Thee the Swan, in honourable nuptials.”
To whom Great Zeys responded, saying: “Odysseys, we know; and Helen,
we know. But never before has one of the sons of men aspired to lead
in open marriage a goddess, daughter of the race of the Kronides.
Hitherto, indeed, passing (but none the less vehement) passions, or
transient (but none the less perfervid) affections, have been the
utmost relations between immortals and mortals. For we gods are severe,
envious above others; and we grudge that immortals shall mate with
mortals, when anyone shall take a dear wife or a husband: as when
rosy-fingered Eos took Orion (that stalwart hunter), so long the gods
who lived easily envied her, until chaste Artemis of the golden throne
slew him, attacking him with her mild weapons. Moreover, the thing also
is new: for, whereas, heretofore, gods and goddesses have loved mortal
women and men in secret, now, this Odysseys, boundless in audacity,
openly demands a goddess-bride before all the court of heaven.
Wherefore, lest we be captured in some snare of this notoriously-wily
one, we require that eloquent Hermes (his sponsor) shall give good and
sufficient reason for such artless candour, such ingenuous presumption.”
Hermes came down from his own throne among the divine immortals,
passing the throne of radiant Phoibos Apollon, the bright one, the pure
one, crowned with the sun in his splendour; and he took thence the
lyre which he himself had made for the master of the music, fashioned
out of the hollow shell of a crab like polished translucent amber
and obsidian, from which sprang the silvery horns of unicorns to the
olive-wood cross-bar, pegged, and fitted with nineteen strings.
He came down, to the clear blue ætherial floor studded with golden
stars, in the sight of all, like a princely youth in youth’s full bloom
whose youth is very graceful, the largest and lithest and loveliest and
wisest and most innocent ever seen, smooth and lissome and gleaming as
living ivory, and his bare head crowned with clusters of honey-hued
curls and a nimbus of sunbeams.
He came down; and cast (to the floor, by his feet) his purple
mantle,--by his agile feet, shod with golden-winged sandals,--and laid
his golden wand upon it, he lightly standing poised on one fair foot;
and he rested the other on a stool, bending his sprightly knee.
He held the heavenly lyre on his thigh with his hollowed arm, leaning
toward till it could not help kissing his beautiful youthful breast;
and with a quill, he tried it note by note: but it sounded, deeply
thrumming beneath his hands. And the young god sang under the notes
of the lyre, a doubly-thrilling intonation, making an extemporaneous
attempt, as full-grown boys at feasts sing with different voices,
rivalling one another in turn.
He sang; and, at his song, my spirit reeled, so strong and passing
sweet the strain. One universal smile it seemed, of joy beyond compare,
unutterable gladness, imperishable life of peace and love, exhaustless
wealth, illimitable power, the cup of health brimful, and bliss
immeasurable. Such was his tone.
He sang; and, at his voice, my spirit lived again, that youthful
heavenly sunny voice, which welled from his open well-sunned throat,
not shrill like a boy’s nor clogged like a man’s, but full and vibrant,
true as a bell, loud as gigantic trumpets, deep and clear as a limpid
river, now high now low from middle notes ranging, strong and resonant
as the voice of an ever-young god who is both boy and man, warbling
unearthly melody around and above and between and below the golden
warbling of the lyre.
He sang; and the faces of all the immortals became diaphanous with
unimaginable radiance; and the steady godly eyes gleamed like fixed
stars at the rapturous magic of his singing. For he sang of arms and
the man, the deathless song of the man so ready at need, never so
strong nor so fierce nor so terrible as when he (naked) fought fearful
odds and a losing battle back to the wall, who wandered far and wide
after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Ilion--the deathless song of
much-contriving much-enduring Odysseys, and of all the deeds which ever
I had done since the distant day when I, a great boy, met Helen, the
divine one of goddesses, a tender girl, who watched me faring girded
high through the ford of Eyrotas by rugged Lakedaimon; and of the
doughty deeds which thenafter I did at the siege of Dardanian Ilion.
He sang of my wily contrivance, the Wooden Horse, whereby at length we
Argives took the city: of the wanderings of Golden Helen, and of mine:
of our meeting again in torrid Egypt and our wooing there, and of how
there I died, slain by unknowing Telegonos my own son and Kirke’s of
the awful braided tresses. And, in a solemn slow low descant, he sang
of how that was the first time, and the last, when ever I lay in the
pure arms of Helen, being dead.
He paused; and the immortal gods wept softly, at the sadness of his
song and the cruel fate which drove us ever here and there apart. And
it was dusky eve.
He bowed his beautiful godly young breast for the lucky horns of the
lyre to kiss again; and his wonderful fingers skilfully wielded the
quill which awakened the delicate voice of the strings. And he sang of
my far-future birth in the sea-girt island, kingdom of Victory queen of
the stalwart stately Anglicans: of my sordid squalid lot there; and of
the wily audacious ferocity of the deeds, which I did in contempt of
all men, to deliver myself and to soar.
He sang of how I, grieving in mind because not one single honourable
friend or companion came near me, but only rogues and tosspots and
false traitors, set out to wander in strange lands, studying all divine
mysteries and magic lore, seeking for wisdom everywhere. He sang of my
marvellous deeds, summoning ghostly souls from the dead and bending
them to my will: of how, in Egypt, I half-failed in the ordeal of the
scorching staff; and of the consequence which befel. And, there, his
sacred strain leaped, leaped like one who meets a sudden slimy toad
sitting very still upon his way, leaped, and was still.
And the immortal gods kept silence. Night flung her violet mantle
round the dome of heaven; and she pinned it with a star. But those
resplendent faces scintillated like many moons in the violet luminous
sheen, intense, immovable.
He took the lyre close to the warmth of his well-spread breast in the
hollow of his shoulder, uplifting his stainless throat, singing with
the well-struck strings. And he sang jewels five words long, which, on
the stretched forefinger of all time, shall sparkle for ever, singing
of my long fall backward through the rolling wheels of time: of my
vision in the secret subterranean shrine at Thebes: of my voyage adown
the sacred river of Egypt: of my coming to Tanis: of my doings with the
hierarch Amenemhat; and of my flight to the open sea.
He sang of my magic invocation of the azure-haired earth-shaking lord
of ocean: of the apparition of King Poseidon amiably-minded: of my
going to the shrine of far-darting Phoibos Apollon at Delphi, and the
oracle chaunted by the levated Pythia: of my meeting unafraid with Pan,
and his goodly gift of clear-seeing.
He sang (and his cadences rippled) of my furious drive down hill, over
the rivers of cold and of flame, for the third time into the world of
the dead.
He stretched out all the slim lithe strength of his ivory limbs,
lambent and supple and warm with refulgent youth, to the heavenly lyre.
His fair throat poured forth a stronger canorous strain, thrilled with
unspeakable splendour. And he sang of the singing of Golden Helen in
exile: to whose sweet anthem, all the blissful court, from all parts
answering, rang.
He sang of how I escaped from fetters and dungeon: of how my wiles
and my audacity and my endurance, sneered-at or scorned by men, made
great gods glad to serve me: of the fight of the six champions, sons of
kings and mighty heroes all. And Herakles, glory of Hera, burst into
boisterous blubberings, inasmuch as he had had no part in so finely
finished an affray.
He sang of my treatment of titans: of the wounding of shady Hades of
recording mind, inexorable king of the land of the shades. And all the
gods and goddesses cried aloud, beating on their blessed knees, because
of the sheer stupendous magnificence of my audacity.
He sang so divine a song, that even fancy’s ear records it not, and the
pen must pass on, leaving a blank: for, nor mortal speech, nor even the
inward shaping of the mind has colour fine enough to paint the sweet
great strain of his nectar, flower-like, fertile of song. He sang of
my wonderful journey out of the netherworld: of the swift death of my
shipmen, fearful, when they saw my mysterious coming: of my lonely
voyage in my unoared sail-less galley over the windless sea.
He sang the cause of my coming, which was Love, the Crown of all Wisdom.
He sang of the sturdy unswerving indomitable force, reward of my wiles
and my audacity and my endurance, which had brought me bearing spoils,
even the Treasure of Hades, from out of the deep and the shade, to the
height of the peak of lofty Olympos. It was Love, all-conquering Love.
Such was the close of his marvellous melody. And, as the last tone
thrilled, strong as a proclamation, Echo caught the strain, repeating
ever lowly, and more low, from sphere to sphere, LOVE ... Love ... Love
... Love.
Rosy-fingered Dawn, crowned with auroral coronal, flung wide the gates
of day: Helios Hyperion began to drive in scintillating splendour
across the sky: the rays of the rising sun splashed beams of golden
light over the clouded throne of the Father and King of gods and men,
when Hermes finished singing thus for me before the areiopagos of the
blessed gods.[60]
FOOTNOTES:
[60] It would be most improper to attempt to pick out the multifarious
quotations which adorn this extremely lovely poem. Those of us who had
the privilege of Mr. C.’s acquaintance in his recent life, cannot but
admire the stupendous erudition which enabled him to blend the Bible
with Homer, Dante Alighieri with Meleagros of Gadara, etc., etc., etc.,
with such perfectly chiselled facility. A. H.
THE TWENTY-SIXTH PAPYRUS
But King Zeys Pampator sat up, and said: “What, O divine ones
inhabiting olympian palaces, think ye now of this Odysseys?”
And they answered: “He is a hero.”
But boldly-steadfast Herakles rose from his throne, saying, in a voice
even louder than Stentor’s: “He is worthy of a chair in our college of
immortals.”
And the gods and goddesses sang together, making the _Sign_, “So mote
it be.”
But the Lord of the Lightning and the Dark Cloud spoke again, saying:
“What, O divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces, think ye now of
Golden Helen?”
And they answered: “She is a spoil well-won.”
But chaste Artemis, beautiful queen of arrows, rose from her throne,
saying: “Let the hero wear his spoil.”
And the gods and goddesses sang again together, making the _Sign_, “So
mote it be.”
But I saw that there were some who did not join in the voting; and
one of those was Queen Hera of the white arms, the most righteous of
goddesses; and another was blameless Queen Aphrodite of the violet
crown: the first, because it is bitter for a woman to be supplanted
in her husband: the second, because of jealousy on account of Queen
Helen’s transcendent beauty.
But the Father and King of gods and men said: “It pleaseth us; and so,
we, of our own free will, command that it shall be.”
And, saying this, he nodded with his immortal head, so that I might
be encouraged. For the nod of Zeys is the greatest pledge among the
immortals: for his pledge, even whatsoever he shall sanction with his
nod, is irrevocable, not false, nor unfulfilled. And, in the sight of
all, he drew me from Golden Helen’s side, out of my silver chariot,
where we had been standing together during a day and a night enraptured
with the singing of Hermes. And he breathed upon me, so that my mortal
nature was blown away from me: but I bathed in the breath of the god,
being soaked in the source of the fire of eternal youth, the prime and
flower of strength; and such red blood as was in my veins was sublimed,
giving place to crystalline ichor, very pure and limpid, such, to wit,
as flows in the veins of the blessed gods: for we eat no bread, nor
drink gleaming wine, wherefore we are bloodless and are named immortals.
And, while I was yet encompassed with the thick clouds of the god,
beautiful dark Sleep was permitted to light upon my eyelids; and I
slept, as a sweet boy sleeps, dreamlessly.
But, when, at length, I awakened, I was in another place. And Phoibos
Apollon, lord of the silver bow, and strenuous Herakles whom not Hera
but Eros could conquer, were come to conduct me to the marriage-feast.
And they spoke of many things: saying that the immortals were rejoicing
in the happiness of so wily a warrior and so fair a maid, save only
the lord Hermes who (after his long singing during a day and a night)
was curing a relaxed larynx, and also shady King Hades who was raging
horribly on account of painful perforations, and swearing that neither
I nor Golden Helen need ever think to expect hospitality from him
again. So, with mirthful minds and smiling lips, we set out all
light-heartedly.
The divine one of goddesses was brought by her Great Twin Brothers,
star-crowned Kastor the tamer of horses and Polydeykes the pugilist.
But, before she came to stand with me at the throne of King Zeys, then,
indeed, divine Memory illumined my noble mind, shewing me a remembrance
of a most graceful _Spell_. And, instantly, I stooped to the limpid
river which flows through the clear blue ætherial realm, taking a
handful of crystal water, a sacred lavation, wherewith to sprinkle the
maid whose hair was like a web of woven sunbeams, saying the _Spell
of The Three Who are One_. And all the immortals bowed their radiant
heads, greatly admiring the magic.
But, after the nuptials, we feasted, eating purple ambrosial jellies,
dainties, such as Zeys-nourished kings eat, with savours of
unblemished hecatombs, and quaffing foaming flagons of nectar distilled
from the apples of heaven and flavoured with roses and rosemary: till,
at last, rustic Pan threw nuts on the floor, for Love and Desire and
Sleep and Death and Hyakinthos and the cupbearers and other children
to scramble for. But, when we had drunk a last cup to Hermes the
Luck-bringer, I led Queen Helen to the palace which mighty Herakles
had lent to us. For that hero was shewing himself very friend-like
to me, on account of my wily deeds and my long endurance of evils,
since he also had done deeds and suffered intolerable evils in his
turn. Moreover, the said hero was very well-mannered and able to rule
himself, wherein he differed from many of the immortals. And, beside
all these things, he was the most married man on the peak of Olympos:
for which cause, no doubt, he was excited about my welfare.
In this manner was the Crown of All Wisdom confirmed to me, when,
having been chaired in the college of immortals, I led Queen Helen, the
Treasure of Hades, into sacred matrimony, in the presence of the gods
of Olympos.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH PAPYRUS
When, at length, we were alone with Love, then, indeed, Golden Helen
kissed me.
I, in sooth, had kissed her in the house of blameless Hades, before the
combat of the heroes: but she had not returned the sweet embrace. And
now she told me the reason: saying that it is an immutable law that an
immortal goddess, who kisses a mortal man in honourable love, thereby
fulminates him. Wherefore, when (in Egypt) I was warring against the
five nations, more than a thousand years before, and when Telegonos
wounded me near the blooming groin with his dark arrow, then, sweet
Helen (mad with fear and love) kissed me, staying me in her arms in the
battle at the mouth of sacred Sihor. Of which arrow-wound, I should not
have died: but, of the kiss, her first, I died. So, lest I should again
be lost to her, she had not kissed me in the house of shady Hades. But,
now that I was immortal, as was she the divine one of goddesses, Golden
Helen kissed me.
And, anon, she said: “Lord king and husband of me, seeing that we
rejoice in happiness, being immortal and mingled in love, so that
we have no desire unsatisfied, let us be merciful to one who hateth
us and kind to him who has wronged us: for, indeed, it is not right
continually to be enraged in one’s mind.”
But this was a most strange saying, whereat I wondered gravely: for
such ways had not been taught to Golden Helen, nor were they known
at that time. And then I remembered the grace conveyed by that most
mighty magic, the sacred lavation and the _Spell of The Three Who are
One_, which, in a mystery, I had been moved to work upon her before our
nuptials. And then I was not affrighted by any more amazement.
But she was embracing my knees, continuing to speak, saying: “Go, now,
dear lord and husband, faring immortally to Khalkis in holy Eyboia; and
take also sweet white Death with thee. And, having entered to Anthemius
Cotta the Roman governour, let the pale god draw from his breast gently
the torch of his life, quenching its flickering flame, so that his body
may rest from its torments. For he is unfit to continue alive and in
health. But, though he would have despitefully used me, I am unwilling
that he should writhe much longer in anguish, being irremediably
mutilated.”
Thus she spoke: but I kissed the pitiful maid again, rejoicing at the
grace which was replenishing her. And, having summoned kindly Death,
together we went, faring invisibly from lofty Olympos with the speed
of a thought: for we immortals in nowise appear visibly to everybody.
But, when we came to Khalkis after the middle of the night, when night
is darkest, then I took the divine white child, silent, garlanded with
asphodel, by his frosty hand leading him; and, so, we entered the
chamber of the Roman governour, plain for all to see.
He lay upon a bed, mangled and shapeless, moaning in the throes of his
torments. But, when the slaves, physicians, watching beside him, saw
me radiant in silver armour with adornments of rock-crystals and blue
moonstones, and the pale young god purer and colder than glittering
frost, standing in presence manifest in an aureola of moonbeams, then
they fell on their faces and were much afraid.
But I addressed the moribund, saying: “Uneasy Anthemius, know that
Queen Helen, daughter of Great Zeys, whom thou didst use despitefully,
wills to release thee from these earthly pangs which are but a just
penance for thy crimes. Nevertheless, the divine one of goddesses
bids thee to enjoy the blessed rest of death, gaining remittance of
sufferings.”
Thus I spoke; and I uttered the _spell_ which unchains the soul from
the body. And white Thanatos stooped, with his tender young frigid
fingers drawing the torch of life from the Roman’s bloody breast; and,
blowing upon it, he extinguished its flickering flame. And Anthemius
sighed, and was comforted, retiring to the world of shades.
But we returned to the peak of Olympos, before he had reached the
netherworld.
* * * * *
Now, when we had dwelled in the palace of Herakles during the full
course of the moon, then, indeed, Great Zeys ordained to employ me in
a certain duty. For it is the custom on the threshold of the immortals
that, whoever shall be raised to the rank of a godly hero and endowed
with immortality, must visit in person the courts of strange gods,
announcing his own apotheosis and receiving recognition. Wherefore, the
cloud-compelling son of Khronos bade me to prepare for my progress: but
to astute Hermes was assigned the task of inscribing letters-patent for
exhibition to all barbarian theocracies.
For, as do earth-dwelling kings, each having power and dominion over
his own people, so also do the gods, each having power and dominion
over his own worshippers. And, upon occasions, disputes arise among the
various dynasties inhabiting the wide-rolling heavens, and wars and
fearful conflicts follow, when the high gods fight among themselves
for lordship over the hearts of men. In which quarrels, the divine
ones of the Argive race are ever to the fore and very ready at need:
seeing that the nations of the Argives are wont to stablish colonies,
daughter-cities, in barbarian lands, crossing the unvintaged sea,
whereto they carry a sacred fire from their mother-city; and they
pray not to the strange gods of the barbarians among whom they dwell,
but to the familiar gods of their dear motherland. Furthermore,
the strange gods of the barbarians sometimes send solemn embassages
of heroes to the king of gods and men, bearing complaints, because
their rites go unrecognized by the Argives inhabiting their domains.
Then, indeed, Great Zeys, having taken counsel with the olympian
immortals, returns a just decision in like manner. At other times, dire
complications unexpectedly arise, when the strange gods send plagues
(perchance of rats or dragons), or pestilences (perchance of bad blind
boils), or even famines, to punish the prepotence or the impiety of
their blameless barbarians; and, by chance, one of the Argive colonists
perishes by reason of the scourge. Then, indeed, loud-thundering Zeys
inflames himself with mighty wrath, when his dear Argive folk fall
victims to the clumsiness of the indiscriminating gods of the so-sinful
barbarians; and he exacts a compensation. But the immortal gods love
not to war overmuch among themselves, their battles being terrific and
the issues not unusually thankless.
And it chanced that, at the time when I reached my chair in the college
of the immortals and of my blissful nuptials, that there was a matter
of feud between us and the theocracy of Juppiter Stator. For the Latin
gods, very stolid, very bucolic, were claiming the worship of the whole
Argive race throughout the earth. And they, rash and overweening,
alleged that, as the fair Argive land had submitted to their bloody
Romans, so, also, Olympian Zeys ought to acknowledge as his blooming
suzerain their Capitoline Juppiter.
For which cause, long-enduring and tiresome and tedious conversations
of high diplomacy were striving to adjust the dispute without appeal to
the arbitrament of war. But a regrettable incident was likely to occur
at any moment: for Ares, bane of mortals, weary of the arts of peace,
paraded himself daily wearing shield and sword; and boldly-steadfast
Herakles, weary of the arts of husbandry, was carving a collection of
most mind-delighting clubs; and my own sweet cousin, Perseys of the
sea, the most renowned of heroes, weary of the arts of love, was all
agog to meet monsters more worthy than pterodactyls in deadly strife.
Wherefore, the Father and King of gods and men bade me to visit, first,
those strange gods who were known not to be unfriendly; and, then, to
proceed to Rome: so that, returning to Olympos directly from the court
of Juppiter Stator, I might bring back the very latest account of the
negociations.
And, having embraced me and Queen Helen, very mighty Zeys gave us our
charters fairly written out by cunning Hermes, my grandsire, who first
brought letters and the art of writing into the Argive land.
Thus, as an immortal, I began to go about the work of the immortals.
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH PAPYRUS
But we ascended the silver-shining chariot inlaid with crabs and moons
in mother-of-pearl, a wonder to be seen, Love being our charioteer; and
we flew afar to the remote regions of the skies, gazing (from time to
time, and with certain thoughts) on the grain-giving earth below.
Now there were certain dynasties of gods, such as those of Anahoyak and
Nippon and Serica,[61] with whom the Olympians dealt but rarely: for
they were of a secretive nature, nor did they exactly welcome guests
from afar, but rather did they slam the door of divine hospitality,
excepting when rare embassages brought news of very grave matters. And,
indeed, no such embassage had been sent from lofty Olympos across the
streams of ocean since Pantokrator Zeys sent pious Deykalion announcing
his accession to the throne of Khronos. For which cause, it was not
deemed necessary that I and Queen Helen should fare so far to visit
divine ones whose very names cannot be written in the Argive tongue.
And, first, we came to the court of the gods of Assyria. There, indeed,
we were mingled in friendship with the Seven Magnificencies, Anna who
rules the Assyrian sky, Ea who rules their earth, Mulge who rules their
abyss, the three rulers of their sun and their moon and their air,
and Belmarduk the god. Beside those, we were mingled in courtesy with
their fifty great gods, and their three hundred heavenly sprites, and
their six hundred earthly sprites. Also, I held converse with their
heroes, Gilgamish and Eabani, the same who came to me in Khem; and,
while I admired their most artificial beards, the mind in my lordly
breast grieved, because (though brave enough and strong) they seemed to
me to be but curly and oily bullocks or gladiators in comparison with
Herakles or Perseys or Kastor and Polydeykes, and the other well-bred
heroes of Olympos. But I held very wily conversation with Belmarduk the
god, gaining certain wisdom which need not be written down here.
But we journeyed on to the court of the gods of Iran, immortals who
bear the strangest of names, such as Ormuzd whom we Argives call ΦΩϹ
or Light, and Ashem or ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ meaning Truth, and Vohu Mano or ΕΥΝΟΙΑ
meaning Good Sense, and Khshathrem or ΕΥΝΟΜΙΑ meaning Power, and
Armaiti or ϹΟΦΙΑ meaning Obedience and Haurvatat or ΠΛΟΥΤΟϹ meaning
Perfection. But chiefly was the mind in my dear breast exalted with
pure joy when I came, radiant in my moonlike sheen, into the presence
of Great Mithra. For the unconquered god of the Iranian sun looked upon
me so earnestly, with wise young eyes of such transcendent candour,
that I was moved to know as much as possible from him. Wherefore, I
gave him the _Sign of the Father of Warriors_. Instantly he replied,
signing me with the _Sign of the Father of Bulls_. I gave him the _Sign
of the Father of Lions_; and he signed me with the _Sign of the Father
of Vultures_. I gave him the _Sign of the Father of Ostriches_; and
he signed me with the _Sign of the Father of Ravens_. I gave him the
_Sign of the Father of Gryphons_; and he signed me with the _Sign of
the Father of Perses_. I gave him the _Sign of the Father of Suns_;
and he signed me with the _Sign of Father of Eagles_. I gave him the
_Sign of Father of Falcons_; and he signed me with the _Sign of Father
of Fathers_ which is the summit of the twelve. But, because I was ware
that I had come upon my master, I made myself obedient, gaining such
wisdom as is not lawful to be written, nor even to be uttered, on
account of a religious reason.
But we journeyed on to the court of Benares; and, having shewn my
charters, we departed as speedily as possible. For it would have been a
shameful deed, to have exposed Queen Helen to the evil communications
of a horde of riotous brutes, apes, reptiles, abortions, frightful
malformations, greasy with rancid butter, dripping with fresh blood
and mildewed with stale, interminably-headed illimitably-armed
innumerably-nippled smirking bestialities, at whose amorous activities
even Olympians were wont to say Phy. For which cause, we just went to
Benares, and we just came from Benares.
But we journeyed on to the mountain of Sinai. There, at its foot, we
stood silently, during the space of a night and a day and a night,
revering unmentioned and unthought-of mystery.
But we journeyed on to the court of the gods of Khem. And Mother Isis
being amazed to greet one of her priests and a master of masters of
magic in one who had risen to the rank of a hero and immortal of
Olympos, of her own free will released me from the oath which I swore
to her before Amenemhat the priest of Tanis: for (as she said) it
seemed that the Supreme had dispositions regarding me otherwhere. And
Ptah the Pain-lessener explained why he neglected my torments in the
ordeal of the scorching staff: saying that there was a law in Khem,
made by Ra himself, which ordained that no alleviation of pain should
be due to a mage who, willingly, should accept the ordeals of wisdom’s
way. To whom I answered wilily (reserving a private opinion of my own);
and I said that the laws of the master were good in the eyes of the
servant, and that this law was particularly to be praised: for, had
I been rendered able to hold the scorching staff, I should not have
fallen backward through the rolling wheels of time, regaining Golden
Helen, the Treasure of Hades, nor Love, the Crown of all Wisdom. Which
answer was greatly admired. And so, for a little space, we dwelled with
the well-mannered gods of Khem, amid the groves and fountains of Duät,
hunting with holy cats and kittens by night on the banks of the Nile,
and by day among the dark hills of Amentet. Moreover, having withdrawn
our shapes from the gaze of mortals we visited the temple at Tanis,
where, formerly, I had done many wily deeds. But my friend Amenemhat
had submitted himself to white Death; and I saw his form at Philai,
conveniently mummied in the manner which I myself had invented. For the
eyes of immortals, peers of Pan, obey their particular desires, seeing
(at will) through stone or wood or any other substance, excepting the
substances whose names and virtues and properties are known only to
masters who have the proper spells for using them. But I obtained as
a sweet guest-gift from the gods of Khem, that they would deal kindly
with dead Amenemhat (till I myself could provide for him), lightening
his dreary lot in tedious Amentet as with frequent cups of cream. And,
I must not omit to mention that, while we were still over Egypt, Queen
Helen would have me go with her one day to Nilemouth: for, having once
innocently slain me there, with the kiss of an immortal goddess given
in honourable love to a mortal man, the gentle mind in her fragrant
breast persuaded me that she owed me an amend. And there, indeed,
having openly kissed me on the lips, she hid her rose-red face on mine
while she whispered a secret joy. For I lived again in another.
But we journeyed on to find the court of the gods of the sea-girt
island, the kingdom of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans.
And, at length, we found, indeed, the sea-girt island: but there were
no Anglicans, nor venerable Victory the queen, nor any gods at all.
Instead, we saw the place to be infested with a rabble of pygmies,
some black-hairy, others sandy-hairy, all cannibals, obscenely naked,
painted blue, inarticulately howling, whose hag-toothed breastless
females mutilated their innumerable slain abominably. Moreover, they
were worshipping very bad devils, dwarves, giants, furies, hobgoblins,
and other dubious monsters, with hekatombs of idiot boys and girls,
bandy-legged, hairy, knock-kneed, stunted, scraggy, whose throats
they tore with sharp stones, stretching them out stark on cyclopean
boulders, or else with twisted-ozier baskets of human shape, fifty
cubits high, which they stuffed full of babies and enemies, burning
them alive with fire, to the music of screeching. From which horrors
we flew away with Love, having laid hideous inchantments on those
barbarians in relief of the earth which sustained them.[62]
But we journeyed on to the court of the gods of Scandinavia. For I was
very desirous of seeing Baldur the Beautiful, and of lifting the hammer
of their Thor; and my desire was not ungratified. Baldur, indeed, was
a comely youth in a crude gaunt-boned pink-fleshy way, such as I have
seen a many of among the Argives: but he could not be named with Hermes
of the golden wand, or with any of the olympian immortals, lacking
the effulgent limpidity and transcendent agility of mind without
which a fair body and sprightly limbs are merely dull and devoid of
spiritual quality. And, as for the so-called ponderous hammer of Thor,
it was as a feather in the wily knack-knowing hands of the man who
had burst the fetters of Hades. But the other gods and goddesses of
Scandinavia offered us a disgusting banquet of fishes and bones of
beeves half-charred, half-raw, whereon they themselves browsed, gnawing
interminably, and washing down the gobbets with bucketfuls of fiery
potions, wherewith (anon) they drowned themselves in drunkenness,
stertorously dropping on sleep in the slime where they fell. For which
cause we left them while the night was dark.
But we journeyed on to the court of the gods of Rome, where Great Zeys
maintained Nestor of Gerenia, lord of chariots, that very wise and
ancient hero, as his embassador. And, in the vast palace of Capitoline
Juppiter was the abode of the Olympian embassage, where, for a time,
I dwelled with Queen Helen, being Nestor’s guests. But it seemed
that nothing could stay the division of counsels among the immortals
any longer. For the Latin gods, implacable, boundless in audacity,
persisted in claiming the sacrifices of all pious persons who dwell
on the wide-bosomed earth: nor would they listen to most interesting
conversations, being tribeless lawless homeless fanulloni, disguised
in the shape of their betters, having not the most rudimentary notion
of the difference between meum and tuum, and loving nothing better
than strife. And day by day they inflated themselves to bursting with
overweening fury, desiring to obtain a monopoly, spurning the just and
moderate claim for supremacy by prescriptive right made by Olympian
Zeys. Yet knightly Nestor, pleasant of speech, the clear-voiced orator
of the Pylians, from whose tongue flowed discourses sweeter than honey,
bravely strove to find some ground of agreement. For he still hoped
that his conversations would avert war.
And, being over Rome, it seemed to me fitting that I should pass
certain words with that blameless senator whom I once had seen at
Tanis. Him, indeed, I found (by certain simple magic) to be called
Gajus Gargilius Gnipho;[63] and to him I addressed myself without
delay, entering his palace on a moonbeam, at midnight, radiant in my
silver splendour, in stature and in aspect very much more than mortal.
For the fellow had comported himself rather too superciliously, when
he saw me as a stranger in the land of Khem and not very flourishing
of appearance. But, when he saw me in Rome, he fell flat before me,
quaking with terror, babbling obsequious deprecations with a rust-hot
tongue. But I, having twitted him with his former blindness to my
divinity, so severely that he wished himself unborn, gave him sundry
comfortable words: whereat, of his own free will, he vowed a blooming
shrine to me at his villa near Caere, with a flamen and two casmilli
of free birth, and a weekly sacrifice of two white sea-gulls and a
crab, as long as the world should endure men. For thus anxious are rich
mortals to purchase the inattention of the immortals.
And, by chance, one day, it happened that, when I returned from going
to and fro, alone and unseen, among mortals in the city, hearing the
speech of men, on entering the palace I found old Nestor lying stunned
in my antechamber. And, instantly, terrible Fear invaded the mind in my
breast on account of Golden Helen.
But, rushing forward, inflaming myself by the way, I found her in her
chamber, gagged with a silken cincture, and struggling in the arms of
truculent Mars. Him, indeed, I dragged about the room, as one drags
an impatient bullock from the altar before his bloody turn, twisting
him; and I dashed the blameless god to the floor with not-innocuous
concussion. But, having released my faithful wife, I bade her to go to
Nestor in his need, and to heal his ill: for she herself was unharmed,
excepting for certain bruises of her lily-like skin which she took from
the grip of the ruffian. And, for these, I made him pay a just price.
First, indeed, he rose from the floor, black in the face with rage.
But I cursed him thereto in good and concise Latin, while he stood
all amazed, being too stupid to think of me as aught but an Olympian
speaking the limpid language of gods and Argives. And I rejoiced in
my lordly mind, at my faculty of venomously-scathing invective, when
I saw how I could exasperate him with my tongue. For the language
of immortals is voluble, and the discourses in it are numerous
and varied; and vast is the distribution of words here and there.
Moreover, whatsoever word one shall speak, such also shall one hear;
and, whatsoever deed one shall do to another shall be repeated with
interest upon oneself. But, when my lickerish swashbuckler had winced
sufficiently, we took to our swords. Now Mars was a war-god whose
habit was to supervise slaughter from his cloudy citadel, descending
to massacre fugitives, and to glut himself with human gore: but he
personally was no more than a slow and clumsy warrior, able (certainly)
to overcome mortals by sheer weight, but no match whatever for an
immortal hero skilled in wiles and expert in all the arts of war.
Wherefore, having dug him well in head and foot, I began to beat him,
abominably bruising his paps. But he bellowed with pain; and fought
wildly, exposing his tender places so that I carved him at my pleasure.
And, when, hacked to shreds, he was ready to fall apart, he took a
great toss from me, hideous in immensity, being pitched from the window
of the palace into the city beneath. But his atoms fell sprawling in
the forecourt of his own temple, crushing the Flamen Martialis as flat
as a corn-cake. But the Romans took it for a portent; and were filled
with forebodings of evil.
Then, Queen Helen begged me to bear her away from the sullen court
of the blameless Latin divinities, returning to the peak of Olympos,
where the star-crowned Twins would guard her honour during my absence,
if absent I was obliged to be. Even wise old Nestor agreed that
conversations must end here, and war begin.
But, first, I demanded audience of Juppiter Stator (the most righteous
of gods): whom I told of the crime of his son, and the penalty paid,
demanding also the usual compensations. Whereat the blooming pretender
was very angry, and made a menacing pass at me with his thunder. But,
him, indeed, I mocked most shockingly, flinging at his feet a bunch of
fat fingers hewed off blameless Mars, and giving him warning, on the
part of all the immortals of Olympos, to prepare for war. But he, too
late, cowered, and was for offering satisfaction, saying that he would
make an agreement concerning the heavenly dispute, desiring not the
enmity but the friendship of us Olympians.
Whom I superbly answered, saying: “Talk now no more of agreements, O
thrice-and-four-times accused pretender and new god. For, as there
are not faithful leagues between lions and men, neither have lambs
and wolves an according mind, but ever meditate evils each against
other, so it is impossible for us and you to contract a friendship.
Long, indeed, have we striven to treat your pretensions leniently,
in accordance with reason: but ye have presumed on our forbearance,
mistaking our gentleness for weakness, and crowning your bloody folly
with a crime, an outrage wrought by a dastard on a daughter and on an
embassador of the king of gods and men. But now it is time to make an
end of you. And I go forthwith to lofty Olympos, to rally against you
the hosts of the splendour of Zeys.”
Thus I spoke; and having by magic called my silver-shining chariot, I
led to it Queen Helen, and Nestor the Argive, who was not to be left
to the mercy of Juppiter Stator; and, when they had mounted to their
places, I placed on the floor the sword of atrocious Mars, intending to
take it as a trophy and a perpetual memorial. But I, also, was about to
ascend beside them, when there came heavily prancing certain blameless
divine ones, squalid of demeanour and agitated of aspect, offering
gifts on the part of the Capitoline god, and begging for a little
respite. And I, having relieved my blooming mind by speaking fierce
opinions to them, and being not at all times implacable but rather
inclined to urbanity, actually did delay for an instant, revolving the
whole matter in my mind, and waiting to hear what might be proposed.
But, even while I tarried thus, my godly eyes clearly saw revengeful
Bellona, sister and pander of Mars, beginning to harness the hounds of
war to her chariot round the corner.
Then, indeed, I turned upon thievish Mercury the messenger, an ape-like
imitator of my wing-footed grandsire, saying: “Return, O messenger, to
Capitoline Juppiter, to whom do thou tell all things openly as I charge
thee: so that all the gods of all the wide-rolling heavens also may
be indignant, even if he (clad in impudence) still dares to deceive
any of the immortals. Let him not (doglike as he is and not godlike)
ever hope to look in my face again as an equal. I neither will join in
counsel nor in action with him: for having already offended me, now he
will try to deceive me. He shall not again over-reach me with lying
words. Enough for him once to do so. But let him perish in quiet: for
Great Zeys, no doubt, has deprived him of reason. Hateful to me are his
gifts, and himself I value not a hair.”
Thus I spoke: but my heart and noble mind were delighted in my breast.
And, having ascended my silver-shining chariot, Queen Helen pulled the
chain; and faithful Love flew away with us as swiftly as a bird or a
thought. But my great black bow began to sing very gloriously of war,
as we left the Super-Capitol, making bright the eyes, hardening the
body, and kindling flames within the mind: for fierce-hearted Bellona
pursued us, over the breadth of Apulia to the unvintaged sea. But
being loathe to fight with a bloody female and (moreover) a blameless
Latin one armed with a bow which to mine was but as a toy, I loosed
my death-bringing shafts backward against the hackles of her blooming
war-hounds, throwing them into confusion. And she, cursing obscenely,
turned, retracing her difficult way.
In this manner I did deeds, wily, and also audacious, visiting the
courts of strange gods who bear rule over barbarians.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] Mexico, Japan, and China, I presume. A. H.
[62] The writer would seem to have hit upon some remote parts of Wales,
or perhaps Scotland, to which Roman civilization had not penetrated.
This is rather unfortunate. For the general condition of the
“sea-girt island” _cf._ Codrington, _Roman Roads in Britain_, and Mr.
Haverfield’s amazingly luminous monographs on _Roman Britain_. At the
same time, we must not forget that the Scotch did really worship demons
originally, which is why their descendants have jumped at Puritan
theology, as Mr. Chesterton expressly demonstrates. A. H.
[63] This is valuable for testing the authenticity of these documents.
_Cf._ Hor. _Ep._ I. vi. 59-63: “Gargilius ... Ithacensis Ulixi.” The
importance of this can hardly be minimized. A. H.
THE TWENTY-NINTH PAPYRUS
But the way in which we Olympians went forth to war was on this wise.
King Zeys, armed with black clouds and white thunder, sat throned in
the areiopagos of the immortals, collecting his forces, assigning
commands and stations. For, as when some hairy barbarian (devoid
of reason) was wont to prance minaciously in the vicinity of the
flowing-haired ingenuous Akhaians, or as when some city (jealous,
or what-not) warred against its neighbour or some bumptious young
colony against its staid and respectable mother-city, all the other
Argives were wont to mingle themselves hilariously together against
the foe, so, also, when the Olympian gods are menaced, each one (from
the highest to the lowest) and including the heroes takes up arms in
defence of his dear motherland.
But King Zeys, whose joy is in the thunder, bade golden-wanded Hermes
to summon from the house of shady Hades the shades of innumerable
heroes who had not attained immortality; and these were as unnumbered
as are leaves and flowers in their season: nor could I number them,
did not the Muses, daughters of Zeys of the dark and holy Aigis, put
into my mind the names of some who came at call to lofty Olympos.
For, when the Olympians go forth to war, then the shades of heroes
are called from the netherworld, and are endowed with bodies. But, if
they stolidly permit themselves to be slaughtered in battle, they lose
an opportunity of attaining immortality and return as shades to the
house of Hades for at least another hundred years. Such, indeed, is
the law. But I remember that these were called from the netherworld,
to wit, yellow-haired fleet-footed Akhilleys, and daring Patroklos
his dear comrade, and red-haired Neoptolemos his son as brave as his
father, and horse-taming Diomedes, and Phoinix dear to Zeys, and
blameless Telamonian Aias the Great, and Lokrian Aias the Little,
and great-hearted Iphitos, and Abantian Elephenor breathing fury
(whose hair flowed behind), and high-hearted Erekhtheys, and godly
Eyryalos, and Agamemnon shepherd of the people, and warlike Agapenor,
and stalwart Diores, and pious Polyxeinos, and Meges peer of Ares,
and large-souled Oineys, and gold-haired Meleagros, and Idomeneys the
famous spearman fierce as flame, and Meriones peer of the man-slaying
war-god, and goodly tall Tlepolemos the Rhodian son of Herakles, and
Philoktetes the cunning archer, and glorious Eyrypylos, and unflinching
Polypoites, and fleet Prothoos, and sage Antenor, and high-stepping
Pandaros, and fluent Talthybios the herald, and comely Sthenelos, and
the lusty cheerful stripling Simoeisios, and well-greaved Tydeys, and
noble Hypsenor, and glancing-eyed Diokles, and innocent Pylaimenes,
and Mydon the squire, and that nymph-born shepherd Boykolion, and
haughty Bellerophon. And these, being summoned, gathered with speed.
And, as the many tribes of well-plumed birds, wild geese, or swans or
long-necked cranes, or even blooming bustards, on the Asian meadow
by River Kaystros, fly hither and thither enjoying their plumage,
and (with loud cries) settle ever onward, and the meadow resounds,
so poured forth the many tribes of warriors, with Theseys the most
righteous of men, from the house of Hades; and they joined with the
immortal heroes, lion-hearted Herakles, and my own cousin Perseys
of the sea (the most renowned of heroes), and Kastor the tamer of
horses, and Polydeykes the pugilist, and magnanimous Iason with his
nine-and-forty generous marine Argonayts, and with others quite
innumerable whose names I have not written for a religious reason: all
mingled together manning the walls of lofty Olympos.
Then came forth from their well-built golden palaces, Ares the lordly
stormer of battlements, and Phoibos Apollon lord of the silver bow, and
his chaste sister Artemis the Archer wearing the moon. And bright-eyed
Pallas Athene cast off her rainbow-hued garments which she herself had
woven; and did on her armour for battle. And, about her shoulders, she
put the terrible Aigis, which knows neither age nor death, whereon
wave a hundred taslets of pure gold, all deftly twisted, and each
worth a hundred oxen: whereon, also, is Panic as a crown round about,
and Strife, and Valour, and horrible Onslaught withal; and thereon,
also, is the grisly snake-haired head of Medoysa the Gorgon, a portent
dreadful and grim. And upon her virginal head, she set the two-crested
golden casque of fourfold plates bedecked with the men-at-arms of a
hundred cities. And she brandished the great stout spear, wherewith she
vanquishes and demolishes all with whom her immortal sire is wrath.
But Hephaistos, the glorious lame god, sweated in toil, busy about the
bellows and the anvil in his house of bronze, imperishable, star-like,
far-seen among the abodes of the immortals: for he was forging
thunderbolts, with arms, and armour.
And, anon, came running the Hora Dike, warden of the cloudy gate,
bringing news that the Latins were approaching in battle-array.
But, instantly, we were pouring out, like wasps who dwell by the
roadside: whom silly boys are wont to irritate, incessantly harassing
creatures possessing cells by the wayside, and causing a common
evil to many. And, as when thick snow-flakes flutter down, born in
the æther and chilled by the blasts of Boreas, so, thickly streamed
forth brightly-glittering helms and bossy shields, with strong-plated
corslets and nastily-pointed spears. And the sheen thereof filled the
heavens near; and the world underneath winked at the flashing of gold
and silver and at the noise of the trampling; and our teeth gnashed
together; and our eyes blazed like so many flaming fires.
But wing-footed Hermes and wind-borne Iris flew, like unseen
arrows, the one to azure-haired Poseidon lord of the ocean, the
other to blameless Hades lord of the netherworld, always collecting
reinforcements. And gallant young Love, ruddy, naked and invulnerable,
rushed with me into the mellay. For no shafts are more deadly than
Love’s.
And the war-chariot of King Zeys the Scarer thundered, awfully rolling
along by the polished colonnades of palaces, bearing the father and
king of gods and men to the forefront of the fray.
But King Quirinus was leading the heroes of the Latins, all blameless
of course, with Aulus master of knights on the left and Furius on the
right, with Herminius in the rear. Turnus served under King Quirinus,
with Mamilius prince of the Latian name. Under Aulus, served Metius
of Anxur and Astur lord of Luna. Under Furius, served showy Curtius,
the forlorn hope. These were all the most righteous of heroes. But the
Latin gods preferred to look on, sullen, from the rear, in what they
fondly deemed to be security.
Thus, immortals were matched against pseud-immortals.
THE THIRTIETH PAPYRUS
Then the Father and King of gods and men thundered appallingly from
above, and, from beneath, the sea-king Poseidon set the vast earth
shaking, even to the tops of her blooming mountains. And the brazen
voice of impetuous Ares resounded through the press of battle; and
bravely-steadfast Herakles strewed the Latin heroes in swathes,
sweeping his club here and there, shattering shins, causing the marrow
to spurt from spines, so that knees became loosened; and sweet Death
in a white cloud enveloped them while life left their bones. But the
lord and lady of the silver bows rained down their hot arrows, which
hissed into wet eye-sockets, forcing-in the pupils, and going forward
into the backs of the heads: so that many heroes sat down without
warning or thrones, stretching out both their hands for nothing. And
blissful Pallas Athene smote many, with her spear, where a puncture is
particularly painful: so that they panted, spinning round and round
upon the point like cockchafers, writhing, holding their interiors in
their hands, until white Death veiled their two eyes wanting life.
But I, on the battlements, saw naught but brave Horatius, heard naught
save his personal challenge to me, felt naught save the blows which he
delivered to my address, touched naught save him, smelt naught save
his delicious blood and sweat mingling with ichor of the immortals.
For I drove my bloody spear into his shield; and pinned it to his arm.
But his spear tore away my silver helmet crested with the prides of
nine white peacocks. Then, indeed, I leaped upon him with my sword,
protecting my head with my fluttering targe. Nor did he abide my
onslaught: but he retired pace by pace; and a shower of sparks burst
out of his armour as I shattered it bit by bit. But, perceiving that
he was on the very verge of the wall, I hustled him so horribly with
my great glittering shield, that, stepping back, he fell for nineteen
days, reaching the bountiful earth at length in the form of a thin red
rain. But I recovered my silver helmet, running sidewise at Furius,
who was pressing the red-haired boy Neoptolemos son of implacable
Akhilleys; and him, too, we hustled from the summit of the wall. But
the stripling laughed; and he fought beside me, fighting as I did,
shoving with very weighty shields, till we had cleared a little space:
for the assault was keen.
But Pallas Athene of the terrible Aigis came whirling along the open
way in her war-chariot, shouting aloud and frightfully in the Orthian
strain. And scores of the blameless Latins she squashed to pulp, or
hurled from the height. But then, indeed, when one might have begun to
think about victory, suddenly I heard the voice of Queen Helen calling
me by name. To whom I revolved like a flash of white thunder.
But the divine one of goddesses was flying toward me in the
pleasure-chariot of white-armed Hera the queen, woven of golden thongs
plaited tightly, with pole and wheels and yoke and harness of gold.
And peacocks drew it, flying on large wings coloured of cinnamon and
ebony, with quivering crests and necks of shining blue, and waving
golden prides which gleamed each with a hundred purple eyes. She cried
to me as she came: for a faithful wife (being troubled) thinks that no
one but her dear husband can relieve her. And she said that constant
Regulus, and Scipio the African, and Gajus Martius of Corioli, were
attacking on the north, having scaled the wall: whom Queen Hera and the
goddesses were withstanding, as best they might, with golden tiles and
paving-stones and jars and bowls and stairs, hurled from the blooming
towers.
And I heard the saying of Queen Helen, with those who fought near me;
and, instantly, we ran roaring to repel the invaders. And yellow-haired
Akhilleys the bravest of heroes ran with me, and red-haired Neoptolemos
his son, and Idomeneys strong as flame, and Diomedes of the loud
war-cry, and magnanimous Iason, and glancing-eyed Diokles, and
golden-haired Meleagros, and my own cousin Perseys of the sea (the
most renowned of heroes), nine in all. But we, ravening with fury,
fell upon the Latins; and I myself engaged Titus son of Tarquinius,
a gallant enough hero, who (after some striving) took a toss from me
into the sea, the abode of fishes, where eels might eat him, nibbling
the white fat round his kidneys. But only implacable Akhilleys remained
alive beside me, having his breath upon the height of Olympos, with
glancing-eyed Diokles who became my sweet friend, and also Perseys the
immortal hero. And all the might of the Latins was surging round to the
north wall; and Titus Manlius of the golden collar was leading them.
But we three fought grimly on.
Then leaped-up in her might Strife the rouser of hosts. Then Pallas
Athene sent forth a cry. And Ares shouted, terrible as the blackness of
storms. Then came Artemis of the silver arrows and the echoing chase,
and Phoibos Apollon darting afar. Then the Father and King of gods and
men came lamping and toning terrifically from above. Then came Hermes
the Helper.
And shady Hades, lord of the netherworld, leaped from his black throne,
bursting his bandages, in terror lest the earth should again be riven
by King Poseidon irascibly rolling great billows about: so loud was the
din made by us immortals. And, at King Zeys’ behest, King Hades gave up
a new host of heroes to Hermes the Helper, Lysander and Leonidas those
dirty-knuckled Lakonians, and Alkibiades and Nikias the Athenians,
and Makedonian Alexandros, and lacerated Prometheys, and thirsty
Tantalos, and wise Telemakhos my son and prudent Penelope’s, and
unknowing Telegonos my son and Kirke’s of the awful braided tresses,
and Teykros the bowman, and belted Orion, and gigantic Tityros, and
even the blameless Dardanian heroes of Ilion to fight for the gods of
lofty Olympos, to wit, Hektor of the glancing helm, and pious runaway
Aineias, and Amphios of the linen corslet, and Asios prince of men, and
Hippothoos skilled with the spear, and well-legged Phorkys, and uncouth
Nastes, and Sarpedon counseller of the Lykians, and noble Glaykos, and
naked Lykaon, and equal-handed Asteropaios, and Polydoros the runner,
all the most righteous of heroes, thirsty for bloodshed and buzzing
like shameless mosquitoes.
And now the heavens were filled with gods and heroes, and ablaze with
arms; and the earth below rang with the noise of the feet of them, as
they rushed together for the fray. For we, the Olympians, like ravening
lions, were leaping out, fulfilling the will of loud-thundering Zeys
ordaining a backward chase of the Latins. They, indeed, of necessity
were compelled to give way; and many fair brands, dark-scabbarded and
dark-hilted, fell to the earth, some from the hands and some with the
severed hands of warriors, so that the black earth was splashed with a
hail of the juices of heroes.
But, scattering, the Latins broke, and fled in confusion, driven in
utter rout; and hero called after hero to engage in single combat,
slaying each his own. And, wherever the king of gods and men saw them
thickest in flight, thither did he guide his blooming chariot with
resounding cries; and, under his axle-trees, the Latins fell prone and
were ground up, till not one remained in life: but they were pushed
into the land of the shades.
And, even as tempests oppress the black earth in autumn, when Zeys
pours forth rain most vehemently, being wrath against men who judge
crooked judgments forcibly and drive justice out: so, mightily, then,
we followed the blameless gods of the Romans; and they fled as men flee
before lions and bloody unicorns. For Panic and Terror and terrible
Fear bounded behind them yelling hideously: so that they fled, over the
mountains of Makedonia, and woody Epiros, and the Ionian Sea, and also
over Apulia, never staying, till (at length) they cowered above the
Capitol of Rome, expecting the doom of the vanquished.
In this manner, was there war in the wide-rolling heavens.
THE THIRTY-FIRST PAPYRUS
But King Zeys called together the areiopagos of the immortals.
And, when the twelve great gods were standing round, in their
well-carved lofty war-chariots, the Latin gods crouched, miserable,
whimpering, chained, in the midst before them. And it was openly
manifest that they, presumptuous ones, overweening in arrogance, had
the audacity to shape themselves (as far as they were able) after
the manner of the divine ones who inhabit olympian palaces: as the
barbarians, Egyptians, or Sikels, or Thrakians, or Bithynians, whom the
Argives take for slaves, mimic the manners of their masters, clumsily
counterfeiting their aspect. Yet, as the Argives are mortal and so are
the barbarians, being alike in that respect but not in anything else,
in the same way both the Olympian and the Latin gods were immortal,
agreeing in no other similitude. But all the company of heaven
marvelled exceedingly, and none knew the counsels of King Zeys.
But the Father and King of gods and men, whose joy is in the thunder,
spoke, saying: “Hearken to me, O all gods and all ye blooming
goddesses, hearing that which my mind within my breast commandeth me.
And one thing let none assay, be it goddess or be it god, to thwart my
opinion: but approve it, ye, unanimously, that I may quickly accomplish
it. For ye know how far I am made the mightiest of all gods. Go to,
now, ye gods, make trial that ye may know. Fasten ye a golden rope from
heaven; and all ye gods lay hold thereof and all goddesses: yet could
ye not drag me from heaven to earth, even Zeys, the counsellor of The
Supreme, not though ye toiled sorely. But, an I were minded to drag it,
then I should draw you up, with the blooming earth and the sea withal:
by so much more am I beyond gods, and beyond men, and all the rest of
it.”
Thus he spoke: but we all kept silence and were still, marvelling
at his saying, for he spoke very masterfully. But, at last, the
bright-eyed goddess Pallas Athene said: “O our father Zeys, well we
know (even we) that thy might is unyielding. Yet we have piety for
these thy prisoners, fools, who now shall perish and fulfil an evil
fate.”
Then Zeys the Cloud-gatherer smiled at her, saying: “Be of good
comfort, dear child: for I am not minded to be unkindly. But, hearken,
O all gods and all ye goddesses; and see the justice of Zeys. For these
cringing immortals (from what part of the heavens they come, I know
not), having taken shapes similar to ours on some false pretences,
audacious ones, have not been content with the worship of their Romans,
but, bursting with arrogance, they have presumed to claim also the
worship of the rolling-eyed Argives. Long, indeed, have I been patient
with them, with fair words and deeds: but they have ventured to bring
war to lofty Olympos. Witless that they are, to be wrath in their folly
against Zeys, who (sitting all by himself) careth not, nor taketh
any thought about them: for I deem that I, among immortal gods, am
manifestly preeminent in power and might etcetera. Wherefore, let them
content themselves with whatsoever sorrows I shall send on each one of
them.”
But fierce impetuous Ares stood high in his war-chariot; whereto were
yoked his horses Fear and Dread; and he slapped his strong thighs with
his hands flatwise, saying: “O lord of the lightning and the dark
cloud, smite them with the thunderbolts; and let them lie among the
dead in dust and blood.”
But, when they heard this awful word, the Latin gods leaped up to touch
the beard and the knees of Zeys, crying aloud in a panic-terror as they
bobbed up and down, saying: “We supplicate thee by thy beard, and by
thy knees, and by thy parents, to take good store of gold and korinthic
bronze (which is platinum and better than gold) as a ransom, and to let
us go in peace.”
But, unto them, the Father and King of gods and men, with grimmer gaze,
responded, saying: “Dogs, dogs, supplicate me not by beard or knees or
parents: for neither a tenfold nor a twentyfold ransom can make amends
for rebellion. Nevertheless, seeing that ye be immortal, even as are
also we others, white Death may not come anigh you. But let us hear
much-contriving Odysseys, the Peer of Zeys in counsel: for perchance he
hath some apt unwinged sentence of judgment in his wily mind.”
Then, indeed, I stood up before all the blooming company of
heaven, in my silver-shining chariot inlaid with crabs and moons
in mother-of-pearl, but Love was my charioteer; and thus I said:
“Immortality to immortals, and nothings to nothingness.”
And all the gods and goddesses (bestowers of good things) stood in
their own war-chariots; and inextinguishable laughter arose among the
blessed gods, when they heard my wily words.
But great Zeys said: “It pleaseth us; and, so, of our own free will, we
command that it shall be done.”
And, immediately, all the gods and goddesses of Olympos leaped upon
all the blameless gods and goddesses of Rome, Zeys upon Juppiter,
and Hera upon Juno, Helios Hyperion upon Sol, and Selene upon Luna,
Phoibos Apollon upon Apollo, and Artemis upon Diana, Ares upon Mars,
and Iakkhos Dionysos upon Bacchus, Eros upon Cupid, and Aphrodite
upon Venus, Hermes upon Mercury, and Pallas Athene upon Minerva,
Demeter upon Ceres, and Hephaistos upon Vulcan, Hades upon Pluto,
and Persephone upon Proserpina, Kastor and Polydeykes upon Castor
and Pollux, Herakles upon Hercules, and Poseidon upon Neptune, and
innumerable others upon others innumerable, pouncing upon them, like
falcons biting the bloody brains of baser birds, buzzards, and such,
sucking out their immortality.
And the forms of the Latin gods, like flies in the webs of assiduous
spiders, lifeless, and very void, fell back, dropping from heaven to
earth; and the speed of their falling ground them to powder, so that
they became as red dust, and a most awful portent for their Romans on
whom they fell. For, by chance, at this same time, the Romans were
perturbed by a political crisis, connected with that Gajus Julius
Cæsar, a king of men and a shepherd of the people. For, when they saw
fierce fiery warriors fighting on the clouds, in ranks and squadrons
and right forms of war, which drizzled blood of heroes on the Capitol,
and, when they heard the neighing of horses and the groans of ghosts
of heroes, slain, shrieking, squealing, going to the land of shades,
then, indeed, blind madness entered into them; and they slew their
precious Cæsar. Thus, the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of
princes.[64]
But the immortal gods, more amply immortal than ever (if that were
possible), returned to their dear motherland bearing the spoils of
victory; and the divine ones inhabiting olympian palaces began to
receive the worship of the Romans, as was due.
In this manner, was there peace in the wide-rolling heavens.
FOOTNOTES:
[64] This, I take for a somewhat Shakespearian reminiscence (or
prevision) on the part of Mr. C. Cf. _Julius Cæsar_, Act II., Scene ii.
A. H.
THE THIRTY-SECOND PAPYRUS
But King Zeys lavished rich rewards, dividing the Roman territories
among gods and heroes, giving temples to some and altars to others, to
say nothing of blank walls eligible for immortal effigies. But, because
I was by no means anxious to have assigned to me the worship of mortal
men (for, having been myself a man more than once, I know something
about the value of men’s worship; and I care as little for suitors who
adulate as for enemies who feel bound to propitiate), then, the Father
and King of gods and men deigned to give me a wish, confirming the same
with his nod, which is the surest pledge among the immortals. And I
said that I would treasure this wish in my heart, so that I might use
it on occasion: for I desired, at that moment, nothing more than to
live in peace and love with Golden Helen. And that, I did.
Living in peace and love, thus, we entertained ourselves with hunting
bears, dragons, and urchins,[65] on the long slopes of lofty Olympos,
or with delicate banquets in the halls of various gods. I, also,
went frequently to and fro among mortal men, generally invisibly,
amusing myself with their affairs. Also, I was wont to disport myself
in my well-benched galley, a wonder to be seen, being drawn by Love
over the grey-green sea at my will. For Hermes my grandsire, and
bravely-steadfast Herakles, and my own cousin Perseys of the sea (the
most renowned of heroes), used to accompany me in my jaunts; and, when
these immortals saw my faithful slaves Neandros and Thalos, being
cognizant of their fidelity and their fearlessness, and, also, having
observed the ingenious mind and the stalwart form of Neandros and the
luminous innocence of Thalos, then, indeed, they shewed them signal
favours, putting into their minds a knowledge of many secrets which the
gods and heroes find useful at times. Nor were the slaves afraid to
have to do with these divine ones, having already braved the terrors
of the netherworld with me, than which there is nothing more terrible,
excepting a really horrid woman. But, because I (by magic art) had
bound their lives to mine, and, because Great Zeys, in reward of my
endurance and my wiles, had indued me with immortality, so Neandros
and Thalos, being immortal as well (though they were neither gods nor
heroes, but only the most comely and most faithful and most clever of
slaves), became habituated to mingle themselves as conveniently with
immortals as with mortals. Which is a wonderful and blessed thing.
But, after a few moons, when I from time to time returned to lofty
Olympos, it seemed to me that Queen Helen was less cheerful than
heretofore. And, when, one day, I found her sitting alone in her close
chamber, weaving a white and silver shirt for me to wear at banquets,
and the lids of her amber eyes were reddened as though with weeping,
then, indeed, I required her to declare to her dear husband the cause
of her grief. But she laid her head on my breast, letting fall a round
tear: nor did she hide aught from me.
For, the long-smouldering jealousy of blameless Queen Aphrodite (the
lady of the dog-star) had been breaking forth; and she was quite
unable to remember good manners in the presence of Queen Helen. But
it was plain to us all, that, as Queen Helen was far lovelier than
she, Queen Aphrodite was no longer the goddess of beauty, though she
still was the goddess of certain kinds of love. Yet, even on the last
count, she complained, being shockingly jealous and upset. For she was
aggrieved because ruddy young Love gave her little of his blooming
company, having bound himself (with a silver chain) in service to me
and to Queen Helen, flying here and there through air and shy for our
exclusive diversion, neglecting her (his mamma) and other divine ones
inhabiting olympian palaces. Which, indeed, was not altogether untrue:
though hitherto we had not given the matter a thought.
Furthermore, white-armed Queen Hera (the most righteous of goddesses),
had been speaking unpleasant words. For that prim matron, being
jealous also, because King Zeys the Swan had procreated Golden Helen
and her Great Twin Brothers out of matrimony, was wont to sneeze more
or less covertly, giggling, flinging the names of victorious Theseys
and sandy-haired impotent old Menelaos and woman-mad Paris at my
stainless wife, designing to shame her and to deprive her mind of ease.
And all this was a very dreadful thing for a chaste and loving wife to
bear. For, though bright-eyed Pallas Athene, and silvan Artemis (that
wise athletic maiden), and fruitful Demeter and powerful Persephone
(those noble matrons), and fair-ankled Hebe, and Iris of the rainbow,
and all the other lady goddesses, being well-bred as well as well-born,
behaved themselves to Queen Helen as to an equal, peerless in beauty
and admirable for her faithful love, nevertheless, the unconcealed
jealousy of the two flawed the fair apricock of her perfect joy. And,
moreover, it must not be denied that the pique of Queen Aphrodite and
the spleen of Queen Hera (both quite blameless) was, or would be, a
cause of wrath, and secret stirring up of strife, and wordy bickering,
and malice, and hinted lies, and curious reservations, and careful
slightings, which would set all heaven by its blooming ears. And that
is what no honest goddess can endure with a calm and holy mind.
Now, because of my unalloyed happiness, and because of my light-hearted
absences, I had been ignorant of all these matters. But, when I
understood them, having reproached myself sufficiently on account
of my selfishness, then, indeed, divine Fury inflamed the mind in my
noble breast with desire of bloody head-cuttings and eye-diggings and
revenges and slaughters and maimings and stonings and spine-impalings.
But, first, I consoled Queen Helen properly.
Then I began to bethink me of most shocking things, to wit, of
certain cunning wiles whereby those two blameless goddesses might
be made laughing-stocks, ridiculous among the divine ones who have
never lost their faces. For I remembered that this would not be very
difficult, for, once upon a time, Great Zeys himself had occasion to
dangle white-armed Hera (the most righteous of goddesses) between
heaven and earth for several months, having fastened anvils to her fat
ankles, because she was excessively offensive. And even Hephaistos of
the strong arm once caught blameless Aphrodite, his wife, diverting
herself gaily with Ares; and he cast a magic web about them so that
all the gods and goddesses might go and gibe at them at pleasure.
And, indeed, it would not be difficult for anyone to make Queen
Aphrodite look absurd: as most of the gods and heroes, and very many
articulately-speaking men well know.
But Queen Helen was averse from all unkindness, and, as aforetime, when
persecuted, she begged me to take her away from the netherworld, and
from Khalkis, and likewise from Rome, so, now, indeed, she implored
me to take her away from the height of Olympos, going (she said)
peacefully, to seek some distant little kingdom on the wide-bosomed
earth, where we (divine ones and immortal), having ourselves endured
unmentioned and unthought-of pains, and possessing the secret wisdom of
the gods, might live in peace and love with ourselves, doing good and
kindly deeds among mortal men.
Now it happened, by chance, that (in my wanderings to and fro) I had
never been altogether unmindful of the prediction of Belmarduk the god
of Assyria, which he made to me when I dreamed in my barge in Egypt.
And, once, when I was flying in my Love-drawn chariot, over the Aigaian
Sea, and over Asia and Galatia and Kappadokia and Armenia, I espied the
fair little realm of Moxoene, where mountains and pine and oak-forests
were set round and about the salt Thospitian Sea; and the folk of the
place were singularly comely, and intelligent and brave, having also
ingenious and reverend minds: but they seemed to be as sheep without a
shepherd.
Wherefore, I determined that the time had come for obeying the decrees
of The Supreme, fulfilling the prediction of Belmarduk the god, and
the sixth prediction which Thalos my innocent slave read in the
palm-mirror. Moreover, I remembered the wish which Great Zeys had
confirmed to me.
For which causes, then, I gave a great and splendid banquet to the
immortals; and, when we had taken away the desire of eating and
drinking (for I provided very exquisite odours of unmentioned and
unthought-of fragrance), then, I stood up on my throne before them all;
and my lordly spirit thus addressed Great Zeys, saying: “O Father and
King of gods and men, let it not be imputed to me for an evil word when
I ask that the drink-offering may be poured, and that I may go upon
my way. For I am a little tired. For it seems that there is jealousy
among the immortal goddesses because of the superior beauty of Golden
Helen, to whom white-armed Hera and Aphrodite (lady of the dog-star)
have spoken unwinged words. And they also complain because tameless
Eros, the oldest and youngest of all gods, hath willingly tamed himself
so far and for this occasion only to go before me and before Queen
Helen in the way. For which cause, then, this is my wish, which thou
already hast confirmed to me by thine irrevocable nod. I wish to go
away at once, and in peace, from this blooming peak of Olympos, with
Queen Helen my unsullied wife, and with my gear, that we may live once
more among earth-trampling men, among whom we shall not be the least,
seeing that we are immortal and have the secret wisdom of the gods. And
I have found the kingdom of Moxoene by the Thospitian Sea, where I wish
to dwell. Now, then, send me on my way, giving me good fortune, that
I may take my noble wife to the beautiful home which I shall make for
her. But ye, blessed gods, be pleased to abide here, all of you, making
glad your own blooming wives and children, and enjoying all sorts of
delicious delights.”
Thus I spoke. And my heart and lordly mind were exultant in my breast.
For immense confusion and hubbub arose among the immortal gods; and
the two jealous queens (the most righteous of goddesses), thoroughly
exasperated by the wily and audacious mildness of my contemptuous
words, bridled and sniffed, tossing their heads and beating their fat
knees, glancing this way and that, madly, and saying that so many rash
things had never been said before for them to sit there and hear.
But wing-footed Hermes, my grandsire, said: “Let him go where he will,
this much-enduring much-contriving Odysseys who is surely Peer of Zeys
in counsel, and Queen Helen who is indubitably the loveliest of mortals
or immortals: for my rede is that my child deserves to be satisfied.
But I myself will never be very far away from him in Moxoene; and, when
ye gods by chance shall want a messenger, take blooming Iris of the
rainbow.”
But bravely-steadfast Herakles said: “Let him go where he will, this
hero Odysseys, and Queen Helen the most faithful of wives: for they
ought to have some happiness after so much ill. But I myself will be at
their call, whenever they ask for a champion.”
But in like manner also spoke my own cousin Perseys of the sea, the
most renowned of heroes. And all the important gods and goddesses
signified approval in the customary manner.
But Eros leaped up, blindfolded, naked, like a young and ruddy flame;
and he said: “Oh, let them go where they will. But thou, O Great Zeys,
whom I not seldom have wounded, be ware that I will not desert such
true lovers as these. And, if thou keepest me here, thou wilt keep no
more of me than my body. But I will make me a nest in their hearts for
ever and ever. For I know where I am a welcome guest, and where I am
unwelcome, and where I am treated simply as a blooming pastime with
childish play, and where with due worship and honour.”
Then, the Father and King of gods and men drew down his immortal
eyebrows: for the matter was an extremely grave one; and he gave
judgment, saying: “Let us by any means secure a quiet life. And,
forasmuch as King Odysseys desireth to leave us peaceably, retiring to
an earthly kingdom with his dear wife and his proper paraphernalia, let
him go to Moxoene thus. And let them have all health and comfort in
their going. It pleaseth us; and, so, of our own free will, we command
that it shall be done.”
Therefore, when Morning donned her saffron robes, and ascended from
bathing in the streams of ocean, to give light to immortals and
mortals, then, all the divine ones (save the two blameless queens),
having loaded my chariot with sweet gifts, came gateward to speed us on
our way. But Aphrodite the lady of the dog-star (the most righteous of
goddesses) pettishly called for her son, holding him between her knees
for once, and caressing his ruddy young neck, with malicious intent to
prevent him from going with us.
But then, indeed, a marvellous portent was manifested.
For my gigantic silver-shining chariot, inlaid with crabs and moons
in mother-of-pearl, stood in the gateway of lofty Olympos loaded
with my gear. And, poised on the front of its rail, was the silver
image of Love, larger than life, blindfolded, naked, most alluringly
proportioned, with his well-winged arms spread abroad in the very act
of taking flight; and his reins were girded with the silver chain, of
which the taslets dangled behind down to the rail of the chariot. But,
when Queen Helen saw that invidious hag detaining our charioteer out
of jealousy, then, she looked at me sadly, letting fall a round tear,
not knowing how we should go. To whom I spoke unwinged words, saying
very firmly: “Mount, my child, nor be affrighted with any amazement
whatever: for dreadful among mortals and immortals is the wrath of a
suppliant. And we, indeed, are the suppliants of Love.”
Thus I spoke: but we two mounted in turn; and Queen Helen pulled the
chain, having confidence in the promise of the god. And, as she worked
the magic inchantment, both our hearts glowed with undying fire. And
we saw young and ruddy Eros, clasped between his wretched mother’s
knees, become suddenly white and rigid: but he himself came; and the
silver image of Love lived, and was Love, bursting into ardent life,
and flying away with us, leaving no more than the wraith of Love with
Aphrodite (most righteous of goddesses) howling on lofty Olympos.
Thus, then, I left the abodes of the immortals, coming to rule my
kingdom of Moxoene on the grain-giving earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] I do hope and trust, and (in fact) I believe that he means
“hedgehogs”: though I confess that I myself never derived much real
sport from the chase of those beasts. Perhaps “porpentines” would be a
more exact rendering. A. H.
THE THIRTY-THIRD PAPYRUS
Now the deeds which I have done and the wiles which I have wrought, in
my kingdom of Moxoene, are on this wise. And, seeing that they are both
great and numerous, I will have them fairly written out by the hand of
Empedokles son of Polypemon, my scribe, on one-and-twenty new rolls of
fine papyrus, and sealed with my kingly sigil.
On the first roll, it shall be written of my coming with Queen Helen to
Moxoene, flying out of the open heaven in my silver-shining chariot,
having a glorious sheen like the moon. And, when the people saw us,
they received us with gladness and piety and exquisite sacrifices: for,
though we scintillated with truly godly splendour, and appeared to be
of very much more than mortal stature, yet we were benign of aspect and
not terrible; and the tribes (also) of the country are not slavish or
timid by nature, but brave and strong, and of an upright ingenious mind.
On the second roll, it shall be written of the stablishing of my
kingdom. For, when the news of my coming went abroad, then, the chiefs
of the fifteen tribes between the Great River[66] and River Araxes
and Media Atropatene with Assyria and Mesopotamia came, of their own
free will, to pay homage to me, swearing faithful allegiance. And these
were the fifteen princes of the fifteen tribes of Akilisene and Derxene
and Phasianene and Bagravandene and Dasranalene and Khorzianene and
Balabitene and Astianene and Anzitene and Sophene and Arzanene and
Gordavanene and Arapakitene and Thositene and Moxoene.
On the third roll, it shall be written of the constitution of my
kingdom as a limited theocracy: for I, the king, and Helen, the queen,
accept the obedience and the worship of the nation, as god and goddess
of Moxoene, for the present and in the absence of anything better.
Here, also, it shall be written of the manner of the said obedience and
worship: of the language of Moxoene: of my kingly name Balthazar, and
the signification of the same.
On the fourth roll, it shall be written of the _Sacred Lavation_ and of
_The Spell of The Three Who are One_, a most efficacious mighty magic
inchantment, which, in the very beginning, I wrought upon the persons
of all and singular my subjects, in my Thospitian Sea, will-he nill-he:
with the names and histories of the two of evil mind who repudiated it,
whom a flying dragon ate that same afternoon.[67]
On the fifth roll, it shall be written of the mysteries, which I study
and cause to be studied by the few who are worthy; and of the altar, of
sunstone and moonstone, to Mithra, Unconquered Father of Fathers, which
I set up in my palace for myself and my own, whereat I myself minister
as mysteriarch among my sons.
On the sixth roll, it shall be written of the fair children borne to me
by Queen Helen, my beloved wife and true: to wit, my darling Diyllos
(superb and glancing-eyed like my friend Diokles) born under the Moon
and the Crab, and my very dear son Nikolaos born under Hermes and The
Virgin, and my twin-son Haliastos and my twin-daughter Halianthe born
under Oyranos and The Waterman; and of the _Sacred Lavation_ and _The
Spell of The Three Who are One_, which I wrought upon them all at birth.
On the seventh roll, it shall be written of Queen Helen, my meet help
and my heart’s constant joy: of all the deeds which she (the divine
one of goddesses) has done for the women and children of my kingdom,
teaching them the arts of love, obedience, service, housewifery,
comforting them in sorrow. Here, also, shall be written of my sweet
daughter Silver Halianthe, my sea-flower, who (having been born in my
galley on my Thospitian Sea, and having been bred by Queen Helen) has
become her golden mother’s second self.
On the eighth roll, it shall be written of my friend glancing-eyed
Diokles, and of my own cousin Perseys of the sea (the most renowned of
heroes), who came to my kingdom while my sons were young, to teach them
all those things which the sons of heroes and of kings must know, and
to show them what the sons of heroes and of kings must be.
On the ninth roll, it shall be written of Hermes the Helper and of
Eros the Great Inchanter, and of my two faithful slaves Neandros and
Thalos. Here, shall be written of the mighty magic which Eros taught to
ingenious Neandros my slave, and to my dear son Haliastos desiring it,
so that they found out wells of fragrant oil wherein pitch beautifully
floats, and also wells of limpid water, for the magic instruments which
they make, wherewith they cut the air into compact blocks, storing
the same in the secret parts of chariots (which, also, they make), so
that the said chariots, fish-shaped, run on the earth, or fly in the
air, or swim in and on the sea, more swiftly than a bird or a thought,
having no sails nor oars nor even horses to draw them. And with these
I win great victories over hairy barbarians, even over the Parthians
with their blooming elephants. And here, also, shall be written of the
wisdom unspeakable which Hermes taught to ingenious Thalos my slave,
and to my strange and very dear son Nikolaos desiring it: so that I
placed them over my royal college of mages seeking wisdom, which I
stablished on the peak above my Thospitian Sea.
On the tenth roll, it shall be written of the death of my darling son
Diyllos, in my war with the Kilikian pirates, in the moment of victory
with his circle of dead about him as high as the well-folded tablets
of his breast. Herakles lighted his funeral-pyre, heaped with his
chariots, his arms, his trophies, and a few of his toys. I could not
burn my own work, the most beautiful body of my son. I preserve it,
using the best of all my magic art, so that it will be sweet and fresh
for me for ever and ever. Here, also, shall be written of the fair and
kingly crypt, where I have hidden that vesture of my darling son, with
my private treasures; and of my daily visit to look upon him.
On the eleventh roll, it shall be written of the embassador who came
from Cæsar Augustus, demanding my submission, requiring me to send
my sons, with the sons of neighbouring kings, as hostages, to Rome.
Here, also, shall be written of the manner of my dealing with the said
embassador, at high noon, on a terrace of my palace builded of white
jade and alabaster and eye-chalcedonyx and silver, on the shore of
my Thospitian Sea: to whom I casually appeared, of immortal stature,
blazing like the serene and vivid moon, arrayed in ermine and silver
tissue sown all over with rose-crystals and blue moonstones, flying
through the air across the sea in my silver-shining chariot inlaid with
crabs and moons in mother-of-pearl, having with me (in the chariot)
Queen Helen, daughter of Zeys the Swan, robed in gold and amethyst
tissue, with her gold hair floating like a web of woven sunbeams, and
with immortal Hermes the Luck-bringer, wing-footed, golden-wanded,
flying (as usual) above my head, and with immortal Love, my charioteer.
Here, also, shall be written of the splendid ceremonies which I caused
to be observed at the interment of the Roman embassador, after his
intempestive demise.
On the twelfth roll, it shall be written of the names of all the mages
of all kingdoms on the wide-bosomed earth, whom I have brought into
my kingdom, where they teach their wisdom to me and to my mages, and
learn ours, serving me in both ways. Here also shall be written of the
histories of those mages, and of the magics which they have used as
masters.
On the thirteenth roll, it shall be written (in the hand of Empedokles
son of Polypemon, and in his own words) of who he was and whence he
came: but he shall write also (in my words) of the reason why I brought
him into my kingdom, and of what he has done there.
On the fourteenth roll, it shall be written of the book of magic
inchantments which I (of my wisdom) compiled for my royal college of
mages seeking wisdom: of the parts of the said book, and also the
secret[68]....
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Euphrates, of course. A. H.
[67] The word here is “pterodactyl.” The largest known specimen of
this abominable winged lizard measures about six metres from wing-tip
to wing-tip. Its frightful crocodilish jaws seem to indicate a very
voracious appetite. But I was unaware that the species persisted till
so late a date. Perhaps I ought to add that the “pteranodon” was about
the same size: but the wing-dimension of the “rhamphorhynkhos” was only
a little over two metres. Both, however, seem to have been extremely
nasty creatures. A. H.
[68] Most unfortunately this Thirty-third Papyrus ends abruptly here.
A. H.
THE THIRTY-FOURTH PAPYRUS
Now I, Queen Helen, daughter of Zeys, an immortal, say these words to
be written fairly by Empedokles son of Polypemon, scribe of my beloved
lord and true husband King Balthazar of Moxoene, whom the immortals and
the Argives call King Odysseys, but he calls himself Nikolaos the Crab,
viceroy of Victory queen of the stalwart stately Anglicans.
And these are the words which I shall say for the scribe to write.
* * * * *
Yesterday, at dawn, our strange and very dear son Nikolaos Diadokhos
came with the faithful Thalos from our royal college of mages.
They said to the king that they had seen a great new Star, suddenly
shining in the south-western heaven, far brighter than any other star
ever seen, and moving south-westward.
My lord and husband the king, having straitly examined them, became
filled with fear and gladness strangely commingled. I never have seen
him thus.
My lord and husband the king enacted an act of regency, naming me,
Queen Helen, as Regent of his kingdom of Moxoene.
My lord and husband the king arrayed himself in his silver-shining
panoply, and he caused our strange and very dear son Nikolaos Diadokhos
and the faithful Thalos to put on their garments of glory.
My lord and husband the king summoned his silver-shining chariot; and
he caused our strange and very dear son Nikolaos Diadokhos and the
faithful Thalos to mount to their places.
My lord and husband the king, with his own hands, took out of our
treasury that casket of rock-crystal, three spans long and two spans
deep and one span broad, which, during his leisure of these many years,
he has carved with crabs and moons and inlaid with blue moonstones,
binding it with hasps and hinges and bands of silver, all with his
own hands; and he filled it full with our royal quintessence of
gum-olibanon, which he has sublimed, also with his own hands during his
leisure of these many years.
My lord and husband the king kissed me in a manner which he never
has used before, bidding me to be of good heart and ready to receive
tidings of great joy.
Having done all these strange things, my lord and husband the king
ascended his silver-shining chariot, with the two mages aforesaid,
taking with him the rock-crystal casket of frankincense aforesaid; and,
so, he very swiftly departed south-westward, at sunset, following the
Star.
Now I, Queen Helen, daughter of Zeys, an immortal, having already
endured many evils, and being now perturbed in my mind, have caused
these words to be written, that I may place them in a most secret holy
crypt. And I will place them with that which is most dear, which is
there, and with the secret silver urns which contain toys, and with
the secret silver chest which contains writings, because these are the
chief treasures of my lord the king.
And, when I have done this, I will see the secret holy crypt closed by
Empedokles son of Polypemon and by the faithful Neandros. And I will
seal the door with the royal sigil. And I will see the very door itself
hidden by the faithful Neandros.
And I will do all these things, that my lord and husband the king may
find his secrets safe, when he shall return to me. For I know not when
he shall return to me.
EXPLICITUR
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
=PUBLICATIONS OF
William Rider & Son, Ltd.=
=THE NEW THOUGHT LIBRARY.=
_Crown 8vo. Crimson cloth extra, gilt tops 3s. 6d. net._
The “New Thought Library” has been designed to include only the best
works in this class of literature. The first twelve volumes are now
ready.
=Have you a Strong Will?= How to Develop and Strengthen Will Power,
Memory, or any other Faculty or Attribute of the Mind by the Easy
Process of Self Hypnotism. By Charles Godfrey Leland. Fifth edition,
containing the celebrated correspondence between Kant and Hufeland, and
an additional chapter on Paracelsus and his Teaching. Price =3=s. =6=d.
net.
=The Gift of the Spirit.= A Selection from the Essays of Prentice
Mulford. Reprinted from the “White Cross Library.” With an Introduction
by Arthur Edward Waite. Third Edition. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=The Gift of Understanding.= A further Selection from the Works of
Prentice Mulford. Reprinted from the “White Cross Library.” With an
Introduction by Arthur Edward Waite. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Essays of Prentice Mulford.= Third Series. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Essays of Prentice Mulford.= Fourth Series. Completing the entire set
of the Essays published in America under the title of “Your Forces and
How to Use Them.” Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
These four volumes constitute by far the best Edition of the Essays
of Prentice Mulford published in the English language. Special care
has been taken to eliminate the errors and mistakes with which the
American edition abounds.
=The Science of the Larger Life.= A Selection from the Essays of Ursula
N. Gestefeld. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Every Man a King=, or Might in Mind Mastery. By Orison Swett Marden.
Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Mental Medicine.= Some Practical Suggestions from a Spiritual
Standpoint. By Oliver Huckel, S.T.D. With an Introduction by Lewellys
F. Barker, M.D. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Self-Control, and How to Secure it= (L’Education de Soi-même). By Dr.
Paul Dubois, Professor of Neuropathology in the University of Berne,
Author of “The Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders,” “The Influence
of the Mind on the Body,” etc. Authorized Translation. By Harry
Hutcheson Boyd. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=He Can Who Thinks He Can, and other Essays on Success in Life.= By
Orison Swett Marden, author of “Every Man a King.” Price =3=s. =6=d.
net.
=Creative Thought.= Being Essays in the Art of Self-Unfoldment. By W.
J. Colville. Author of “Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations,”
“Life and Power from Within,” etc. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=The Rational Education of the Will.= Its Therapeutical value. By
Dr. Paul Emil Levy, with Preface by Prof. Bernheim, Ph. D. Author
of “Neurasthenie et Névroses.” Translated from the ninth edition by
Florence K. Bright. Price =3=s. =6=d. net.
=The Gift of the Spirit.= Pocket Edition (5in × 3in). Leather Gilt,
=2=s. =6=d. net.
=MYSTICISM.=
=The Open Secret=: Intuitions of Life and Reality. By Charles J.
Whitby, M.D., Author of “Triumphant Vulgarity,” “Makers of Man,” “The
Wisdom of Plotinus,” etc. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, =2=s. =6=d. net.
=On a Gold Basis.= A Treatise on Mysticism. By Isabelle de Steiger.
Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, =3=s. =6=d. net.
=The Cloud upon the Sanctuary.= A Text Book of Christian Mysticism.
Third Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Crown 8vo, xxxix+144 pp., =3=s.
=6=d. net. By Councillor Karl von Eckartshausen. Translated and
Annotated by Isabelle de Steiger, with an Introduction by Arthur Edward
Waite.
The fullest and clearest exhibition of the Doctrine of a Secret Holy
Assembly within the Christian Church.
=The Hidden Way Across the Threshold=; or, The Mystery which hath been
Hidden for Ages and from Generations. An explanation of the concealed
forces in every man to open THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, and to learn THE
GUIDANCE OF THE UNSEEN HAND. Illustrated and made plain, with as few
occult terms as possible, by J. C. Street. Large 8vo, with Plates,
=12=s. net.
The writer of this book, it is admitted, has enjoyed access to
sources of information not commonly open to mankind in its present
state of development.
=Steps to the Crown.= By Arthur Edward Waite. Foolscap 8vo, buckram,
=2=s. =6=d. net.
“Mr. Waite has presented his philosophy of life in a series of
aphorisms. The author of this volume is well known as one of the best
living authorities on the history of mysticism, and the point of view
here maintained is that of an initiate.”--_Tribune._
=The Way of the Soul=, a Legend in Line and Verse, depicting the Soul’s
Pilgrimage through Matter. By William T. Horton, Author of “The Book
of Images.” With Foreword by Ralph Shirley. 48 full-page Symbolical
Illustrations. In artistically designed blue cloth binding, black and
gold lettering, with symbolical design. Crown 4to, gilt tops, 224 pp.,
=6=s. net.
=Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations.= By W. J. Colville, Author
of “Fate Mastered,” “Life and Power from Within,” etc., etc. With
Portrait of the Author. Crown 8vo, 366 pp., cloth gilt, =3=s. =6=d. net.
=The Altar in the Wilderness.= An attempt to interpret Man’s Seven
Spiritual Ages. By Ethelbert Johnson. 5½in. × 4in. cloth gilt, cheaper
edition =1=s. net.
CONTENTS.--I. The Golden Age. II. The Exile. III. Life in Death. IV.
The Conflict. V. The Wilderness. VI. Illumination. VII. The Temple.
=The Mysticism of Colour.= By the Honourable Mrs. Charles Bruce. With
Folded Colour-Scheme Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 230 + xxpp. =3=s. =6=d.
net.
=PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AND SPIRITUALISM.=
=Byways of Ghostland.= By Elliott O’Donnell, Author of “Some Haunted
Houses in England and Wales,” “Ghostly Phenomena,” etc., etc. Demy 8vo,
cloth gilt, 248 pp., =3=s. =6=d. net.
CONTENTS.
The Unknown Brain; The Occult in Shadows; Obsession, Possession:
Complex Hauntings and Occult Bestialities; Vampires, Were-Wolves,
Fox-Women, etc.; Death Warnings and Family Ghosts; Superstitions and
Fortunes; Birth-Marks; Pre-Existence; The Future; Projection.
=New Evidences in Psychical Research.= By J. Arthur Hill. With
Introductory Note by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. Crown 8vo. cloth gilt,
224 pp., =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Christianity and Spiritualism.= (_Christianisme et Spiritualisme._) By
Léon Denis. Translated by Helen Draper Speakman. Crown 8vo, =3=s. =6=d.
net.
The writer contends that Spiritualism offers tangible proofs of
immortality, and thus carries us back to the pure Christian doctrines.
=Here and Hereafter.= (_Après la Mort._) Being a Scientific and
Rational Solution of the Problems of Life and Death, and of the Nature
and Destiny of the Human Ego in its Successive Lives. Translated by
George G. Fleurot from the French of Léon Denis. Second edition,
revised, cloth gilt, crown 8vo, 352 pp., =3=s. =6=d. net.
=Mors Janua Vitae?= A Discussion of Certain Communications purporting
to come from Frederic W. H. Myers. By H. A. Dallas. With Introduction
by Sir W. F. Barrett, F.R.S. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, =2=s. =6=d. net.
=Colloquies with an Unseen Friend.= Edited by Walburga, Lady Paget.
Crown 8vo, white linen, =3=s. =6=d. net.
CONTENTS.--Reincarnation. Atlantis. Conditions of Communication with
the Invisible. Historical Sketches. Humanitarianism and the Advance
of the World. The French Revolution and Secret Societies. War and
Politics. St. Francis.
=Death: Its Causes and Phenomena.= By Hereward Carrington and John R.
Meader. Ornamental black cloth, gilt, 8¾in. × 5½in., 552 pp., =8=s.
=6=d. net.
PREFACE. PART 1.--Physiological. The Scientific Aspect of Life and
Death. Trance, Catalepsy, Suspended Animation, Premature Burial.
Old Age: Its Scientific Study. My own Theory of the Nature of Death
(Hereward Carrington). My own Theory of the Nature of Death (John R.
Meader). General Conclusions.
PART 2.--Historical: The Philosophical Aspect of Death and
Immortality. The Theological Aspect of Death. The Common Arguments
for Immortality.